On Trump Tariffs, Kyiv Says ‘Chance to Negotiate Better Terms’

The impact of new US tariffs on Ukraine is “complicated, but not critical,” Ukraine’s Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said. 

The US will apply a general tariff of 10% on imports from Ukraine. 

“Unlike Moldova (31%) or the EU (20%), Ukraine is not subject to any additional higher tariff,” Svyrydenko, who’s also Ukraine’s vice prime minister, wrote on X. 

According to Svyrydenko, Ukraine exported goods worth $874 million, including $363 million in pig iron and another $112 million in pipes. 

These are 600 different categories of goods “ranging from industrial products to simple items like wrenches.” “Among them, 65 product types generate more than $1 million in revenue,” Svyrydenko wrote. 

At the same time, Ukraine imported $3.4 billion worth of goods from the US. Ukraine doesn’t have tariffs on coal and oil from the US, but has a 10% levy on imported American cars. 

The US tariffs will mostly hit small manufacturers and Svyrydenko wrote that the government is working to “secure better conditions” for Ukraine, without stating the exact plan. 

But she hinted it might have something to deal with the negotiations between the US and Ukraine. 

“We now have a chance to negotiate better terms – the US statement explicitly mentions this possibility. … As a reliable ally and partner, Ukraine has a lot to offer the US. Fair tariffs will benefit both our countries,” she wrote. 

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US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced tariffs on almost all countries in the world, including levies that exceed 30% on Asian economies such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand. 

The tariffs will be two-tiered. First, there will be a 10% baseline tariff on all countries. A higher reciprocal tariff will be charged on roughly 60 countries – those with which the US has the largest trade deficits. For instance, China’s total tariffs against the US were calculated by Trump’s team to be 67%, so the new tariffs would be half that, at 34%.

In a media event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Trump declared it to be “Liberation Day in America.” 

Although economists cannot tell the future impacts of the tariffs, the only preliminary consequence is that they will initially be more hurtful to the US, escalating inflation, and acting as an additional tax on consumers. 

Tariffs will result in a sharp price increase for US consumers, Yurii Gaidai, 

a senior economist at the Center for Economic Strategy wrote in his Facebook post. 

“For many categories of American imports, substitution is either impossible or will be significantly delayed. For example, half of the spare parts for American automakers are imported. I’ve seen estimates suggesting that relocating the production of even 10% of these parts to the US would take three years and require over $100 billion in investments. And that’s just a small fraction of auto parts,” he wrote. 

The price increase for goods will also lead to a drop in demand, he wrote. 

A drop in demand will also worsen consumer sentiment. This will add up to a fall that was already reported by the University of Michigan, when consumer sentiment hit the lowest since November 2022, Trading Economics reported. 

“Overall, predicting all the effects accurately is difficult. But one thing is certain: the efficiency of the global economy will decline. Humanity’s overall prosperity will decline,” Gaidai wrote.