Ibec Statement on the agreed EU-US Trade Deal

Ibec CEO Danny McCoy said:

Today’s trade agreement between the US and EU brings an end to a significant amount of uncertainty for some businesses. However, a 15% tariff still represents a substantial burden for many industries. Sectors which rely heavily on the US market and operate within small margins, will once again be significantly impacted by an additional 5% tariff, on top of what they have already had to absorb over the past several months and well in excess of the 1% effective tariff which existed before April.

Our message to the Government, as it was with the 10% tariff, is that the most exposed sectors will require support similar to the interventions provided as a response to Brexit.

It is important to note that the details are still emerging and will only be worked out as today’s framework is fleshed out. These details will be critically important for Ireland. Pharmaceuticals and Semiconductors which equate to 75% of Ireland-US trade are, we understand, included in the 15% deal. However, there is still a question around the stability of that rate over both the short and long-term in the face of ongoing Section 232 investigations.