Germany says UK to suffer if no Brexit deal, not EU

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Saturday said
Britain would face the brunt of the fallout if post-Brexit trade talks
collapsed without a deal.
Scholz spoke as EU-UK trade talks have descended
into acrimony after London's decision to wilfully break its divorce treaty with
new domestic legislation.
Britain left the EU on January 31 and is now
negotiating with the EU to agree future trading relations when a transition
period ends at the end of the year.
The new law in London has stoked fears that Britain
will bluntly sever ties with Europe when the transition ends, throwing
cross-channel ties into chaos.
"My assessment is that an unregulated situation
(no deal) would have very significant consequences for the British
economy," Scholz told reporters after a meeting of EU finance ministers in
Berlin.
"Europe would be able to deal with it and these
would not be particularly difficult consequences after the preparations we have
already made," he added.
The EU has warned that the contentious legislation has
"seriously damaged trust" between the two sides and told London that
if it is not withdrawn by the end of September, Brussels will consider taking
Britain to court.
Paolo Gentiloni, the EU's economics affairs
commissioner, said that it was up to Britain to "re-establish trust"
with the bloc.
"And in any case... we are prepared to deal
with extraordinary negative outcome of this discussion," the former
Italian prime minister added in Berlin.