Hopes of EU-US trade agreement put on ice, say Brussels sources

Uncertainty grows about trade deal with the EU that some in the US felt would be more important to its interests than a post-Brexit deal with Theresa May

The prospect of a revived EU-US trade deal is in "deep freeze", according to Brussels sources, undermining reports that the EU has been inching ahead of the UK in the race for an arrangement with Washington.

Neither Donald Trump nor European officials raised the possible resumption of talks during the US president's visit to Brussels last month, EU sources said. Documents relating to the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, known as TTIP, had now been locked in a filing cabinet and the code to open it had been lost, one diplomat joked.