PRICE hikes, job losses and “recessionary trends” across the globe are incoming on the back of Trump’s tariffs but Taoiseach Micheal Martin believes: “Ireland can weather this storm.”
As EU leaders call for talks to avoid a trade war, the White House warned “this is not for negotiation” with President Trump not planning to back down.
The enormous 20 per cent tariff on all EU goods travelling into the US has set Europe and America on a collision course that could devastate the Irish economy.
Ireland’s cash cow pharma industry has escaped the tariffs for now but Government figures believes it is only a matter of time before pharmaceuticals are targeted.
Trade Minister Simon Harris said: “We should not lull ourselves into a false sense of security here. This is just the start.
“President Trump has been clear he wants sector-specific actions on pharma.”
Some €4.2 billion worth of goods and services are traded between the EU and the US every day with European leaders urging the President to come to the table for negotiations.
However, it looks like Trump will not consider removing the tariffs that kick in next week as the White House said he is “doubling down” on his economic plan.
This will leave the EU with no choice but to fire back with their own tariffs on US goods – a move that could hit Ireland hard due to the amount of American companies based here.
EU Commissioner Michael McGrath pushed back against Donald Trump’s claims that the EU was unfairly taxing American goods as he blasted the US tariffs.
He said: “We do need to bring this back to people. People get hurt when tariffs are imposed. People can lose their jobs. Prices can go up. The cost of medicines can go up.
“Lots of bad things happen when tariffs are imposed in a unilateral manner like this.”
Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the Government will now try to speed up efforts to make things easier for companies to do business in Ireland and doubling down on investment in infrastructure.
The Taoiseach warned that the tariff move will create “recessionary trends” across the globe but he moved to reassured the public that Ireland is ready to weather the economic storm.
He said: “We are starting from a position of strength and our economy is resilient.
“It is important we focus on factors we can control including improving our competitiveness and investing in infrastructure.
“By working with Irish owned companies, multinationals based here, with our EU partners and bilaterally with the US we can and will weather this storm.”
New exchequer figures released today showed that Ireland is continuing to pull in bumper tax returns with €23.6 billion collected in the first three months of the year – up €3.5 billion compared to the same period last year.
Some €8.2 billion was brought in through income tax, €7.6 bn from VAT, €3bn in corporation tax and €1.7bn from the Apple tax cash.
Meanwhile, the impact of Trump’s tariffs will not hit every worker in Ireland, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has claimed, as he urged people to stay calm in the wake of the biggest trade shake-up in 100 years.
The Government today published the latest Exchequer update which shows that Ireland recorded a budget surplus of €4 billion in the first three months of the year.
Amid concerns that our bumper tax returns could be wiped out by Trump’s economic upheaval , Minister Donohoe said Ireland is ready for the challenge.
Asked what his message is for the public after the economic bomb from Donald Trump, the Fine Gael TD said Ireland’s public finances are safe.
He said: “We really understand the anxiety and apprehension that many people are facing but we are in an economy in which there are so many people at work, which still has a high demand for workers and in which we have public finances that are safe and have funds that were put in place to provide safety in the future.
by Michael Doyle – Picture: Cole Burston/Getty Images
IRELAND should forge deeper ties with Canada after realising it can no longer rely on the US, it’s claimed.
Canadian companies already employ over 15,000 people directly and a further 12,000 indirectly here in companies including Irish Life, Air Canada, Circle-K, and Molson Coors.
The Ireland Canada Business Association says Irish exports to Canada could double within five years.
Dr Deirdre Giblin, chair of the ICBA said: “The Irish government must now urgently focus on diversifying our FDI base and further building our relationship with Canada – one of the world’s largest economies and a great friend to Ireland.
“Canada has explicitly expressed its desire to get closer to Europe, and Ireland is in prime position to be the gateway for it to do so.
The Irish government must now ratify CETA as a matter of urgency, and continue to work hard to address Ireland’s barriers to business and make this country a highly attractive home for Canadian multinationals.”
“The general message that we can offer is that we want to continue to lead our economy in such a way that helps people who may need to change employer, who may need to move into different parts of the economy because of what could happen with trade.
“But we want to make sure they can do that in an economy that is still strong.
“The effect of this will be felt differently depending on where you work in our economy.
“We know this is a time of apprehension for lots of people but we do want to confirm today that at this point of the year things are on track and we’re going to be working to put together plans to try to be of help in the areas that will be affected.”
The Dublin deputy said the impact of the tariffs on job losses in Ireland will be in the “medium term” as companies pause investments due to uncertainty.
Minister Donohoe warned that Ireland and the EU will hit back with a “firm” response to the Trump tariffs if negotiations do not yield an agreement.
Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers warned that the extent of the Trump tariffs have not been seen since the Great Depression in 1930.
He said: “If you look at the fundamentals of what is being imposed it is going to have a serious impact on consumer confidence, it’s going to have an impact on investment confidence, potentially increase costs and inflationary impacts on citizens.
by Padraic Halpin – Picture: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
AS US President Donald Trump takes aim at the mostly American-owned pharmaceutical factories that dot the Irish countryside, the people of Carrigtwohill are getting nervous.
A cluster of high-tech plants offering well-paid jobs – the product of Dublin’s strategy of attracting multinationals with generous corporate tax policies – has transformed the southerly rural town, quadrupling its population in just two decades.
The pharmaceutical industry has an outsized presence in Ireland, employing about two per cent of the workforce and generating tens of billions of euros in taxes for government coffers.
But if Trump has his way, the good times could be about to end.
While pharmaceuticals were exempt from the sweeping duties he announced on Wednesday, a US official said the president is planning separate tariffs targeting the pharma industry.
Pharmaceuticals accounted for €58 billion of the €73 billion worth of products Ireland exported to the United States last year, a big contributor to the US goods trade deficit with the European Union that has riled Trump.
“He is going to do fierce damage,” said retired butcher Anthony Barry, 73, at a charity event at Carrigtwohill’s community centre, where the tariff threat to the Irish economy dominated conversation.
“It’s just a worrying time,” he said, after one of the event’s organisers listed six family members who work at nearby US pharmaceutical facilities.
Trump has repeatedly singled out Ireland for “luring away” US pharma giants such as Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer with decades of low corporate tax rates.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has characterised Irish policy as a “scam” that Trump’s administration will end through tax changes and tariffs.
“All of that yields great uncertainty and the last time the scope or extent of this was tried globally in trading terms was around 1930 which led to the Great Depression.
“In fact, the tariffs that are being proposed now are in excess of that.
“We’re in a different more diverse global economy and we are coming to this from a point of strength from the Irish perspective but there is a huge amount of unknown unknowns on how this will manifest itself in the next period.”
He said tariffs of this size have not been seen in more than 100 years as he predicted this will be “the great disruptor” for the global economy.
Business owners across Ireland were today inundated with queries from US importers who are panicked about how the new tariffs may push up prices for people in the States.
Tom Keogh, Managing Director of Keogh’s Crisps, said their business has been booming in the States in recent years with American sales now making up 15 per cent of their sales.
He said: “I woke up this morning to emails from US retailers all wanting to know how we were going to help with the situation.
“They weren’t asking us to solve the situation. They were looking at how we were going to help so I think there is an opportunity there for people to work together and negotiate and find a path through this.”
Foxes Bowe whiskey in Co Limerick started exporting to the States in 2023 and have seen huge success in Texas and Florida.
Co-founder Tony Foote told Virgin Media that his company has been stock piling product in the US since Trump took office and now has buffer to see them through the next six months.
He said: “I think it is good that we have somewhat of a sense of clarity.
“There has been a lot of talk since his inauguration in terms of what was going to come and what was going to happen.
“At least now, to the best of our knowledge we know. We’ll see what happens with the EU and if they slap tariffs on bourbon does he get into more reciprocal tariffs on that.
“But who knows. You kind of hope a bit of common sense will prevail.”
