The European Union and the US are headed in the “right direction” in trade talks, though new American levies on steel and aluminum imports aren’t helpful if both sides want to maintain momentum, Maros Sefcovic said after meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

“Our goal is to maintain the momentum,” the EU trade commissioner told reporters Wednesday in Paris, where he’s attending a conference at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“I believe we can achieve positive result,” he said. “But we are also ready to defend our interests and do the utmost to rebalance our trade relationship.”

The meeting came as the US is pressing its trade partners to put forward proposals to address US President Donald Trump’s concerns over the trade imbalances in order to speed trade talks before July 9, when higher levies are set to take effect.

Meanwhile, the US administration continued to increase the tariff barriers by raising steel and aluminum rates to 50% from 25% on Wednesday in a move called necessary to protect national security.

Asked about Trump’s latest increase in metals tariffs, Sefcovic said it wasn’t a helpful step in the talks and urged that the US and EU work together to resolve overcapacity problems.

“We told him that we strongly regret this latest US decision and explained to him it clearly doesn’t help the ongoing negotiations especially as we are making progress,” he said. “So my plea was, ‘let’s not target each other but work together.’”

Trump has especially antagonized the EU by accused the 27-nation bloc of slow-walking negotiations, leading the European Commission, the EU executive’s arm responsible for trade talks, to promise to accelerate the talks.

According to commission estimates, tariffs adopted by Trump now cover 380 billion euros ($433 billion), or about 70%, of EU exports to the US.

The EU has approved tariffs on €21 billion of US goods in response to Trump’s metals levies that can be quickly implemented. They target politically sensitive American states and include products such as soybeans from Louisiana, home to House Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as agricultural products, poultry and motorcycles.

The bloc is also preparing an additional list of tariffs on €95 billion of American products in response to Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” levies and automotive duties. They would target industrial goods including Boeing Co. aircraft, US-made cars and bourbon.

The OECD warned on Tuesday that the trade tensions initiated by Trump have significantly worsened the outlook for the global economy, and the US in particular.

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