After the experience with the agreed backstop which was negotiated a year ago in order to enable negotiations to proceed, it is highly unlikely that the EU will agree to any such pseudo-"clarification". In the case of the backstop agreement the UK reinterpreted it, and misinterpreted it, so as to provide a cover for an attempt to back out of what they had agreed a year later.

We have not yet reached an agreement on how Brexit will be effected. Anything which has been suggested so far is a negotiating position, and can still be changed. This is the EU position. "Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed".
By delaying discussing future trade the EU are ignoring their own guidelines. 'Brexiteers' may not find this surprising.

I have quoted the guidelines before, but people (usually remainers) insist on ignoring them in this discussion.
Negotiations under Article 50 TEU will be conducted in transparency and as a single package. In accordance with the principle that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, individual items cannot be settled separately. The Union will approach the negotiations with unified positions, and will engage with the United Kingdom exclusively through the channels set out in these guidelines and in the negotiating directives. So as not to undercut the position of the Union, there will be no separate negotiations between individual Member States and the United Kingdom on matters pertaining to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union.
3. The core principles set out above should apply equally to the negotiations on an orderly withdrawal, to any preliminary and preparatory discussions on the framework for a future relationship, and to any form of transitional arrangements.
From the EU's own guidelines : Here