According to Serbian Economist, Ukraine has resumed negotiations with Serbia on establishing a free trade area, as the current level of trade between the two countries remains relatively low. Ukrainian Ambassador to Serbia Oleksandr Litvinenko stated this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. According to him, a free trade zone could revitalize bilateral economic ties and, at the same time, fit naturally into the European integration of both countries. Among the promising sectors, the diplomat cited mechanical engineering, particularly agricultural machinery.
For the Serbian Economist, what matters in this story is not only the political signal but also the plain arithmetic. According to official data from the Statistical Office of Serbia, in 2025, Serbian exports to Ukraine amounted to €179.6 million, imports from Ukraine to €212.2 million, and total trade turnover reached approximately €391.8 million. At the same time, Ukraine’s share of Serbian exports and imports remains at only about 0.5%, which indeed confirms the thesis that the scale of trade is still limited.
The current range of trade between the countries still appears rather narrow and largely consists of raw materials. According to data from the Ukrainian Embassy in Serbia, the main items of Ukrainian exports to Serbia are iron ore and ferrous metals, wood and wood products, as well as plastics and polymer materials. More detailed product statistics show that among the largest Ukrainian shipments to Serbia were iron ore worth $61.6 million, hot-rolled iron products worth $11.9 million, and semi-finished iron products worth $8.92 million.
From the Serbian side, exports to Ukraine currently consist mainly of fertilizers, plastics and polymer materials, electrical machinery, ferrous metals, soap, and rubber.
If we look at the potential impact of the FTA in practical terms, the most logical outcome appears to be an expansion of trade in those niches where one side can offer the other either cheaper or scarcer goods. For Ukraine, in addition to the metallurgical and raw material products already being exported to Serbia, these could include agricultural machinery, certain types of metal products, wood processing, value-added food products, and niche consumer goods.
For Serbia, the most potentially attractive goods on the Ukrainian market in the event of an FTA could be fertilizers, polymers, electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, rubber products, tires, and auto parts. In other words, an FTA could theoretically shift trade from a narrow exchange of raw materials toward a greater number of processed goods on both sides.
A separate sensitive issue is Serbia’s status in the WTO. Serbia is still not a member of the World Trade Organization. The latest European Commission report on Serbia explicitly states that the process has stalled primarily due to the lack of a WTO-compliant law on GMOs and due to unfinished market access negotiations with a small number of WTO members. Belgrade has not concluded some of the bilateral negotiations required for WTO accession, and older Serbian documents listed Ukraine, Brazil, Russia, and the United States among the problematic partners.
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