EU negotiator says UK ‘not automatically entitled to any trade benefits’

The EU’s top Brexit negotiator said on Wednesday that Britain was not automatically entitled to any benefits that the bloc had previously granted to other partners in trade talks.

As the two sides negotiate a new partnership following the UK’s departure from the EU, London’s chief negotiator, David Frost, published a letter on Tuesday accusing Brussels of denying it benefits the bloc has previously granted to others, Reuters said.

“There is no automatic entitlement to any benefits that the EU may have offered or granted in other contexts and circumstances to other, often very different, partners,” the EU’s Michel Barnier said in his reply.

Frost also said that “at this moment in negotiations, what is on offer is not a fair free-trade relationship between close economic partners, but a relatively low-quality trade agreement coming with unprecedented EU oversight of our laws and institutions.”