The chancellor of Germany is against a British plan for “managed divergence” from the EU.
The UK wants a trade deal that claims financial services are integral to the “bespoke” arrangement the UK wants.
Chancellor Philip Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis have arrived in Germany today for more Brexit negotiations.
They have claimed that there is the possibility of a global crash if the UK fails to get is ways on financial services when it leaves the EU.
Mr Davis and Mr Hammond wrote in a joint article for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine:
“The economic partnership should cover the length and breadth of our economies including the service industries – and financial services.
“Because the 2008 Global Financial Crisis proved how fundamental financial services are to the real economy, and how easily contagion can spread from one economy to another without global and regional safeguards in place.”
They say the UK wants the most ambitious economic partnership with the EU in the world, which will require a “bespoke solution”.
They said: “As Brexit talks now turn to trade, the UK will look to negotiate a new economic partnership with the EU – the most ambitious in the world – that recognises the extraordinary levels of interconnectedness and co-operation that already exist between us.”
Head of Europe practice at the Eurasia Group Consultancy, Mujtaba Rahman,told The Daily Telegraph : “Hammond and Davis are going to have their work cut out to convince the EU, that the UK’s ‘three baskets’ approach isn’t another attempt to cherry-pick and sow division within the EU.
“Germany is going to play hardball. Senior officials in Berlin are clear that Angela Merkel is determined not to award the Brits a deal that gives Eurosceptics and future trade partners a precedent to point to.”