Clare’s Minister of State insists Ireland is in a position of strength ahead of an imminent trans-Atlantic trade war with the US.
It comes as Donald Trump is set to impose at least a 20% tariff on chemical and pharmaceutical goods imported from the EU.
A cabinet meeting has been told this morning that exports of chemical and pharmaceutical goods could halve if the US imposes a 20% tariff and the EU responds in kind.
In 2023 alone, the value of pharmaceutical goods produced in Ireland was over €58bn, and every year pharma exports to just the US account for roughly one-fifth of all Irish products sold abroad.
Shannon is the epicentre of multinational med-tech and pharmaceutical companies in the MidWest and local TD Donna McGettigan says it’s vital the Government adopts an approach that protects these jobs long into the future.
Donald Trump’s ultimate goal is for multinational heavyweights to relocate to the US, but this is unlikely to happen during his term for several reasons.
Firstly due to the time and investment needed to decommission a facility here and build a new one in the US, having to recruit a skilled workforce from scratch and a much more complicated path to European markets.
Clare Minister of State Timmy Dooley insists that regardless of the fallout, the state has significant reserves to invest that will help through any period of uncertainty.
You can listen to the full interview below.
