European Union offered Britain talks this year on a future free trade pact but made clear in negotiating guidelines issued yesterday that London must first agree to EU demands on the terms of Brexit. Those include paying tens of billions of euros and giving residence rights to some 3 million EU citizens in Britain. T<br/><br/>he proposed negotiating objectives distributed by EU summit chair Donald Tusk to Britain's 27 EU partners showed. The document also sets tough conditions for any transition period, insisting Britain must accept many EU rules after any such partial withdrawal. It also spelled out EU resistance to Britain scrapping swathes of tax, environmental and labor laws if it wants to have an eventual free trade pact.<br/><br/>The guidelines, which may be revised before the EU27 leaders endorse them at a summit on April 29th, came two days after Prime Minister Theresa May triggered a two-year countdown to Britain's withdrawal in a letter to Tusk.