To get insights on how best to deal with the problems in the trading environment in the coming period, Ireland has appointed business leaders in the United States to join an advisory panel to sit alongside the diplomatic corps.
Ireland’s Tanaiste (deputy prime minister) Simon Harris will be able to draw on the analysis and expertise of these senior US-based experts on specific business and economic issues that this Strategic Economic Advisory Panel (Seap) will provide as he works to manage the growing trade threat with Donald Trump imposing new high tariffs.
Seap is a high-powered group of business leaders and experts who are “on the ground” in the US and are advising Harris on “strategic economic opportunities and risks in respect of the US-Ireland economic relationship”. During his visit to Washington this month, Ireland’s Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheal Martin, met with a number of participants of Seap. This was the first meeting of the group.
There are a number of high-profile Irish-led businesses based in the US including Stripe, CRH, Glanbia, Kerry Group, Kingspan, Ornua and Smurfit Westrock. The Government hopes that the strength of these firms’ operations in the US will be a way of convincing the new US administration of the benefit of good trading relations with Ireland.
The group (Seap) has been established in response to mounting concerns about the political economic shocks that would emanate from any decision by Trump to impose trade tariffs on the European Union. Last month, the US president said he was “absolutely” going to impose tariffs on the EU, which he claimed had “treated us so terribly”. A week later Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
A senior government source said that while Ireland maintained a direct and close relationship with the US, any imposition of tariffs against the EU would have a “significant impact”.
“Simon Harris kicked off a set of interventions early in February aimed at protecting Ireland’s economy,” the source said. “He met the trade commissioners and this month spoke to the US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Ahead of the establishment of Seap, Harris had given a memo to cabinet updating ministers on the latest developments surrounding Trump’s plans to impose trade tariffs. That memo was about the setting of another high-level group based in Ireland to focus on trade challenges.
The group set up includes ministers, senior officials from other relevant departments, senior business representatives, senior leadership from state agencies, including Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia, IDA Ireland, The American Chamber of Commerce and with due consideration to gender balance and regional diversity. It was to help prepare the country for any international trade and any potential trade shocks, particularly from the US.
The minister for enterprise, Peter Burke, has said that Ireland needed to view Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on the European Union as part of wider negotiating tactics and remain calm. He also said that Trump pulling out of the OECD global corporate tax deal meant the EU would now have to decide on the ultimate fate of the historic deal.
The US stocks slipped last week as investors reacted to Trump signing an order to implement a 25 per cent tariff on auto imports. Shares of several auto makers also slipped in Europe following the tariff announcement.
US has also suspended its contribution to the World Trade Organisation according to three trade sources cited by Reuters, as Trump intensifies efforts to reduce government spending. The move is part of a broader push by the administration to distance itself from global institutions that conflict with its ‘America First’ economic agenda. Washington has already cut funding to several international bodies and is planning to withdraw from others, including the World Health Organisation.
The writer is our foreign correspondent based in the UK.
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