Ukraine is ready to zero out duties on American goods to cancel new tariffs from Trump

Ukraine does not need to respond in kind to the tariffs introduced by US President Donald Trump; instead, in order to cancel them, the Ukrainian government is ready to zero out tariffs on American goods.

Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka said this in an interview with the EP.

“We import products from the US for $3-4 billion. We have low tariffs on these products or no tariffs at all. Therefore, we are ready to zero out tariffs on American products. I think we will talk about this with the US administration at the first opportunity: according to their calculator and approach, this is how it should be,” Kachka said.

At the same time, he expressed the opinion that Ukraine should not take mirror measures in response to US actions.

“The proclamation itself says that if any country acts in response, then almost automatically tariffs can be raised in response. There will be an escalation. I am not sure that we need to do this too. We all know how delicate our dialogue with the US is on other tracks. Our interest is to cancel tariffs, not to escalate,” Kachka explained.

He noted that mirror tariffs on American goods were introduced by China.

“Obviously, the scale of trade and problems in China are different. Our entire trade in a year is perhaps even less than a month of trade between China and the United States. The EU is also now thinking of introducing such tariffs. For them, this is a more complex issue,” the trade representative added.

It should be noted that the European Union has already proposed to the US to introduce zero tariffs on cars and industrial goods. However, Donald Trump rejected this proposal, instead demanding that the EU buy $350 billion worth of American energy resources per year if it wants lower tariffs.

How Trump’s tariffs will affect Ukraine

As reported, on April 2, US President Donald Trump announced the introduction of additional tariffs on imports of goods from 185 countries. The base rate was 10% (including the one applied to Ukraine), but for many countries they are higher. Tariffs on goods from China amounted to 34%, from the EU countries – 20%, from Switzerland – 31%, from Israel – 17%, from Kazakhstan – 27%. At the same time, tariffs were not introduced for Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Belarus. The Trump administration explained that sanctions are in place against these countries, so trade with them is already limited. In addition, Trump introduced an additional tariff on imports of cars and spare parts for them in the amount of 25%.

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko stated that this tariff will not have a critical impact on Ukrainian exports to the US. According to the Ministry of Economy, Ukraine exported goods worth $874 million to the US in 2024, of which $363 million was for cast iron and another $112 million for pipes. In turn, Ukraine imported goods worth $3.4 billion from the US.

At the same time, the 25% tariffs imposed by Trump on aluminum and steel imports came into effect in March. They also apply to Ukraine, which previously enjoyed a temporary exemption from tariffs on imports of steel and steel products.

As a reminder, in May 2022, US President Joe Biden signed a decree temporarily suspending the tariffs on Ukrainian steel introduced in 2018 for one year. In 2023, Biden extended this decision for another year, and in June 2024, for another year.

Tags: Ukraine, USA, duties