Zelensky proposes free trade agreement to Trump, Kyiv says

President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed a free trade agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. to President Donald Trump, Deputy Economy Minister and Trade Representative Taras Kachka said on May 20.

According to Kachka, Zelensky offered an agreement in a letter to Trump, alongside mentioning other opportunities for cooperation in trade and the defence industry.

"This, accordingly, will be the next stage of our conversations," Kachka said during a conference in Ukraine’s capital.

Kyiv is interested in such an agreement, despite the fact that the U.S. is not Ukraine's largest trading partner, he added.

"We are interested in free trade agreements with all G7 countries. That is, we have (agreements) with Britain, Canada, and the European Union. We also need the United States and Japan," he said.

Ukraine and the U.S. launched initial talks on a free trade zone back in 2021.

Earlier, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Kyiv seeks to boost bilateral trade and an agreement with the U.S. to allow "everything except for the fixed exceptions."

Ukrainian trade with the U.S. has dropped in recent years, with only $874 million of exports and $3.4 billion of American imports last year. But the knock-on effect could be a global trade war that hits Ukraine too, Oleksandra Myronenko from the Center for Economic Strategy (CES) in Kyiv, told the Kyiv Independent last month.

In early April, Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all Ukrainian goods, except metal products, which had already been subject to a 25% tariff in March.