US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has decided to pull out of negotiations on digital services taxes with European Union officials after they failed to make any progress, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Wednesday.

Lighthizer told US lawmakers that he still believed an international regime was needed to deal with taxation, but the talks with European countries were not proving fruitful.

“We were making no headway and the Secretary made the decision that... rather than have them go off on their own, you would just say we’re no longer involved in the negotiations,” he said during a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Treasury spokeswoman Monica Crowley said Washington had proposed pausing — not ending — talks among the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development countries on digital taxes and setting rules for international taxation.

“The US has suggested a pause in the OECD talks on international taxation while governments around the world focus on responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and safely reopening their economies,” she said.