European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told CNBC on Wednesday that Europe must "get ready" and anticipate possible trade tariffs imposed by incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.

She said Trump was "very wise to not impose a package of tariffs on his first day as president ... because a package of tariffs doesn't necessarily give you the results you expect."

As a result, she said she expected Trump's tariffs to be "more selective and targeted."

"What we need to do in Europe is prepare ourselves and anticipate what's going to happen in order to respond," she told CNBC's Karen Tso at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on goods imported from the European Union into the United States and has repeated those claims since taking office on Monday, telling reporters that the EU "treats us very, very badly. So, they're going to be punished." tariff. "

EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told CNBC on Wednesday that the EU would respond "in an appropriate way" if its economic interests need to be protected.

There is widespread debate about the impact of potential U.S. tariffs. Economists say the tariffs could hurt the economies they are imposed on, leading to fewer exports of goods to the United States. Some have also warned that the U.S. economy could suffer as tariffs could lead to higher inflation.

Trump said the tariffs would protect American businesses and support the country's economy.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday that the alternative theory - reducing imports from Europe to "strengthen" U.S. manufacturing - "is questionable because the U.S. economy is almost in overheating right now."

“If you look at the (U.S.) labor market, you’ll see very low unemployment. If you look at production capacity, you’ll see it’s almost at capacity. So you can make things that are no longer imported, or you can replace them with more High prices for imports, this... it's going to take some time," she said.

Lagarde added that importers may also not be able to operate at low margins for long, meaning that ultimately "the responsibility will be passed on to consumers."

Lagarde also separately called for the removal of trade barriers within Europe, noting that despite the desire to create a single market, there are still obstacles that sometimes hinder the smooth flow of goods and services.

"I think that was one of the points that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made yesterday - let's make sure we remove the barriers that we can control," Lagarde said, without giving details.

Lagarde said she hoped this would happen in the coming weeks, describing it as "a way of responding to changes in U.S. trade policy."

"Be strong at home, make sure you trade domestically, sell and buy domestically, save domestically, invest domestically. It's not that we want to be protectionist because lower barriers have told us that we think trade is actually very It helps," Lagarde added.

—CNBC’s Katrina Bishop contributed to this report.

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