TAOISEACH Micheál Martin has said that “engagement is key” in the fallout of US President Donald Trump putting Ireland in the crosshairs for trade tariffs, with a push to repatriate pharma companies operating on Irish soil.
With almost 40 per cent of pharma exports in Ireland going to the US, with an estimated value close to €60billion in 2024, the Taoiseach has described President Trump’s tariff threats as “very serious”.
Speaking in Limerick today (Friday) in advance of the inaugural meeting of the Limerick Mayoral and Government Consultative Forum, the Taoiseach said that US tariffs would be “bad for the world economy, and the trade war might be very bad for the world economy”.
The Taoiseach warned that pharma tariffs in particular would lead to “high inflation and higher prices for medicines for consumers, and will damage the economic prospects for the companies insofar as they’ve embedded very substantial funding in plants in Ireland”.
Indicating that “engagement is key” on both a national and EU level, the Taoiseach suggested his hope that “these issues get resolved through negotiations and discussions primarily between the European Union and the United States”, adding that “Ireland will also be engaging bilaterally and working with our European Union colleagues”.
As regards the fear of an exodus of US pharmaceutical companies from Irish soil in reaction to tariffs and President’s Trump’s call home, the Taoiseach said: “I think we have to take it step by step. I think they’re long-standing, they’re embedded, and they’re producing very high quality and essential medicines, so you just can’t dismantle that overnight”.
The Taoiseach also warned of the “severe impact” US tariffs would have on the car industry.
“Our objective is to engage with a view to working through this and the overarching priorities, protection of jobs and the protection and maintenance of the facilities in Ireland. But it is serious.
“This is a fundamental change in terms of economic policy. If you look through from the late 1990s and 2000s onwards, we were in an era of globalization. We’re now moving into an era of potential protectionism and tariffs and territory tariffs, that’s not good for anybody in our view.”
The Taoiseach said that the government is already working on a response to the tariff threats in terms of economic planning, developing Ireland’s indigenous base, and in market diversification.
He also expressed hopes for “copper fastening” trade relations with Canada and “improving competitiveness” and expanding the single market within the European Union.
