EU has no legal duty to give UK trade privileges, document says

Paper concludes EU does not have to offer privileges given to others in previous deals

The EU has no legal duty to grant the UK privileges offered to other countries in trade deals, an internal European parliament paper has concluded ahead of a crucial round of Brexit talks this week.

The document, drawn up by officials for the parliament's UK coordination group, is a short analysis of arguments made by the UK's chief negotiator, David Frost, in a letter to his counterpart, Michel Barnier. Frost accused the EU of treating the UK as an unworthy" negotiating partner by denying the UK the kind of well-precedented arrangements commonplace in modern FTAs [free trade agreements]".

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