EU Commission says will study UK position paper on customs carefully

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Tuesday it would "carefully" study Britain's proposal on setting up an interim customs agreement with the European Union, but would only address the post-Brexit relationship once sufficient progress had been made on the divorce. "We see the UK's publication of a series of position papers as a positive step towards now really starting phase one of the negotiations. The clock is ticking and this will allow us to make progress," a spokesman for the Commission said. The Commission was responding to a position paper published by Britain in which it proposed setting up an interim customs union but also wants the right to negotiate other trade deals. (Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Jon Boyle)