The Trade and Investment paper is part of an Ibec campaign, Making a Resilient, Competitive Europe a Reality: The Business Ambition for Ireland’s EU Presidency, setting out the priorities of business ahead for Ireland’s upcoming EU Presidency.  

The global trade outlook is increasingly challenging, marked by geopolitical tensions and rising protectionism. For business, this means more risks, less predictability, and fewer opportunities.

Trade openness must be at the core of the Irish Presidency’s agenda. With 85% of future economic growth predicted to take place outside of Europe, a proactive, outward-looking common trade policy, paired with the ability to attract investment, remain among the EU’s most powerful assets.

Given Ireland's unique links, the Presidency can act as a bridge to strengthen the vital EU and US relationship. The Presidency must also act as a leading voice for a rules-based trading system and advance the EU-UK relationship.

As the EU debates its industrial strategy, the voice of open economies like Ireland is crucial. Our paper calls for strengthening our industrial base selectively and intelligently, cautioning that broad protectionist policies like ‘European preference’ criteria risk cutting off future growth.

Key recommendations:

• Champion WTO reform and drive meaningful consensus post MC14 to ensure a fair and predictable trade environment rooted in the rules based trading system.
• Strengthen the EU’s capacity and partnerships to advance trade objectives and maintain open markets despite slow multilateral progress.
• Facilitate plurilateral solutions to complement agreements at multilateral level while leveraging strategic flexibilities where WTO outcomes are limited.
• Enable greater bilateral partnerships through closer collaboration with CPTPP, OECD partners and aligned countries to advance EU trade objectives.
• Advance the e-commerce Joint Statement Initiative and safeguard the digital trade moratorium through closer cooperation with likeminded partners.
• Engage business in rulemaking by promoting structured dialogue to ensure that trade rules reflect current business realities.
• Support developing countries to better align WTO dialogue with EU legislation, ensuring
• EU legislation does not disproportionately impact the most vulnerable.