EU won't extend trade visa-free regime with Ukraine and will restore pre-war conditions – source

The European Union will not introduce new trade preferences for Ukraine immediately after the current trade liberalisation mechanism expires on 5 June 2025 but will subsequently introduce some changes to the terms of the free trade area approved under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Source: European Pravda, citing an unnamed European official familiar with the progress of trade negotiations between Ukraine and the EU Details: The European official stressed that after 5 June 2025, when the current Autonomous Trade Measures (ATM) granted to Ukraine expire, trade conditions will revert to pre-war levels.

However, the EU, together with Kyiv, plans to propose specific favourable adjustments for Ukraine thereafter.

The source told European Pravda that starting from 6 June, the ATM - trade preferences for Ukraine introduced by the EU after the start of the full-scale Russian aggression - would end. The conditions, they said, would return to pre-war levels. Both the trade preferences and the current restrictive measures on a number of commodities, such as chicken meat, eggs and honey, would also be lifted.

They added that the idea of leaving trade preferences for some Ukrainian exports to the EU, such as steel, is being discussed.

The European official said that the EU would next continue discussions on amending Article 29 of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in order to develop the most favourable trade conditions for both sides and support Ukraine's war-affected economy.

Background: 

• Earlier, Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski stated that the European Commission had not yet submitted a proposal on the trade visa-free regime with Ukraine to the EU Council.
• On 13 May 2024, following lengthy and intense negotiations, the EU Council approved an extension of preferential trade measures with Ukraine for another year - until 5 June 2025.
• Regarding the future format of trade relations between Ukraine and the EU, tentative agreements were reached to integrate the duty-free regime into the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
• In February 2025, Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister, Yuliia Svyrydenko, said during a joint meeting of the European Commission and the Ukrainian government that Kyiv's priority for 2025 was to conclude consultations on trade liberalisation under Article 29 of the Association Agreement.
• That same month, the agriculture ministers of Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia called for the reintroduction of pre-war quotas on Ukrainian agricultural imports.

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