Stavros Lambrinidis, EU ambassador to the United States, saidThe European Union is trying to get the United States to remove national security tariffs on metal imports by the end of the year.

"We will sit down for the next five months until the end of the year-we will try to solve the fundamental problem of overcapacity, and our absolute goal is to eliminate these tariffs," Lambrinidis said in a virtual discussion hosted by the Wilson Center on Monday. "We have to get rid of these tariffs-they hurt a lot of industries."

At the time of Lambrinidis's remarks,Europe and the United States are working to improve trade relations that deteriorated under former President Donald Trump. At a summit last week, Europe and the US agreed to a five-year truce over aircraft subsidies, creating breathing space to resolve the 17-year dispute.

The European Union and the United States are also working to eliminate tariffs related to metal disputes. The dispute began in 2018, when Mr Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on steel imports from countries and regions, including the European Union, and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium products. The United States says these imports of steel and aluminum pose a threat to national security.

The European Union retaliated by imposing tariffs on 2.8 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of US imports, including Harley, Levi jeans and bourbon.

Hit hard by retaliatory tariffs, American whisky makers have been lobbying for months to resolve disputes and abolish tariffs.

"in the final analysis, both the European steel and aluminum industries are suffering from overcapacity," Lambrinidis said. "the problem of overcapacity hurts the European Union as much as it hurts the United States."