After the US president Donald Trump’s latest announcement of the pause on tariffs, Ireland’s deputy prime minister Simon Harris said his meeting with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick “confirmed my view that there is an openness on the part of the US to engage” in a negotiation process.
The encounter in Washington took place the day after Trump said he would be delaying tariffs on most nations for 90 days while raising the tax on Chinese imports. US treasury secretary Scott Bessant had said Trump was keeping his 10pc baseline tariffs on most countries. Harris called the latest announcement “timely, valuable and substantive”, saying that the next possible steps had been discussed.
“I welcomed the fact that the president has announced the suspension of the higher tariffs – this I know will come as a relief to many businesses in Ireland”, Harris said. Adding: “I recognise that further engagement and clarification is required between the European Commission and the US administration on the detail of this.
“We also had an opportunity for a substantive engagement on pharma and I outlined the mutually beneficial role that the sector plays for Ireland and the United States.”
Harris said he had also outlined the dynamic interconnected economic relationship between Europe, Ireland and the US. “I conveyed our commitment through the European Union to comprehensive negotiations that would address a broad range of issues,” he said.
“I outlined my view that Ireland as part of the EU, wants to play a constructive role and will continue to be a voice for calm and measured engagement in the time ahead.”
Chief economist with the Institute of International and European Affairs, Dan O’Brien, said an American U-turn always looked possible, given the scale of market reaction following Trump’s announcement of the huge tariffs, so the EU’s best move may be to do nothing for now, in terms of its own retaliatory measures.
Earlier, Ireland’s prime minister, Michael Martin had warned the parliament that a global trade war would have dire consequences for millions of people around the globe. The Government was “already hearing from some who are seeing their orders from the US slowing or even drying up entirely, putting valuable and skilled jobs at risk,” Martin said. “And there may be more to come”.
Although Trump has hit pause on tariff, there remains huge uncertainty, not least about sectors that are key in the Irish economy.
“Ireland has yet to see the approach the US will take on pharmaceuticals, semi-conductors and other sectors excluded this far,” Martin said. Trump had specifically warned that he would be tackling pharma next – a sector that accounts for nearly half of Irish exports by value and has such a huge effect on the country’s economy with over 48,000 people directly employed in med-tech in Ireland.
The share price of several pharma companies with operations in Ireland – including Ely Lilly, Pfizer and Merek – slumped in early trading on the US market on April 9, before rebounding following the news of changes to the tariff rates.
“I hope the US will reflect carefully before taking any further steps,” Martin said. “Industries like pharma involve deeply complex and interconnected supply chains, as we saw clearly during the pandemic. I have spoken to many leaders in the pharmaceutical sector in recent days to discuss how best we can navigate these very serious challenges.”
The prime minister said he knew how concerned companies and their employees were. “It is not a sector in which production can be turned on and off overnight”, he added.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe painted a bleak picture of lower living standards if future trade was left “fragmented”. “Tariffs, to put it simply, are taxes in consumption and investment and are unambiguously negative for economic growth,” he said.
The writer is our foreign correspondent based in the UK
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
