TAOISEACH Micheal Martin has warned that people in America will face even higher medicine prices if Donald Trump hits Ireland’s pharmacy industry with tariffs.
There is growing concern about the potential impact that Trump’s tariff war with the EU could have on the Irish economy with Government forecasts expected to be published over the weekend.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin warned Trump’s tariffs will drive medicine prices higher in the US[/caption]
The American president is due to confirm his package at the start of next month[/caption]
Ireland exported more than €70billion worth of goods to the United States last year with many major American pharmacy companies producing their medicines in our country.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin today met with EU leaders in Brussels where they discussed ceasefire talks with Ukraine and Russia, Israel’s latest bombing campaign on Gaza and the incoming Trump tariffs.
European leaders are braced for April 2 when President Trump has promising to announce his package of tariffs on the EU.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, the Taoiseach warned that tariffs on pharmaceutical products will push up the price of medicines in the US where treatment is already sky high.
He said: “Medicine is a very key issue for European patients and for American patients.
“The cost of medicines are very high in the United States.
“Tariffs would lead to even higher prices for medicine in the United States so I don’t see the logic in that.”
The Taoiseach said that EU countries need to be unified in their response to Trump’s tariffs and will wait until the package is announced before taking any action.
He said: “The EU believes – and Ireland does as well – that tariffs are bad for business. They are bad for the consumer. They raise prices.
“It was very clear from my visit to the US there was a lot of uncertainty in American companies who don’t like tariffs either and a lot of people are very, very worried about the impact on global trade and on the global economy overall.”
At home, Tanaiste Simon Harris warned the Dail that Ireland is “highly likely to face a very significant period of turbulence” when it comes to the economy.
He said: “Europe doesn’t want tariffs. I’ve heard so much misinformation in the past few days about why won’t Europe engage?
“The position in Europe is really clear – and which Ireland is proudly a part – we want to sit down and we want to reach an agreement.
“We want to do business with the US. We want to buy more stuff from the US.
“It does seem that the tactic and approach of the American administration is to announce a series of measures first and then engage.
“We believe that’s wrong – the engagement should happen now.”
DON GUARD
Trump last week accused Ireland of taking America’s “pharmaceutical and other companies away through taxation” as he welcomed Martin to the White House.
Trump told the room: “We do have a massive deficit with Ireland, because Ireland was very smart, they took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents who didn’t know what they were doing.
“It’s too bad that happened – the Irish are smart, you’re a smart people, you took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies through taxation, improper taxation, they made it very good for companies to move over there.
“We had presidents and people that were involved in this who had no idea what they were doing and they lost big segments of our economy.
“The European Union treats us very badly, they have for years – I saw that and I had it out with them in my first term. Did well but we had to solve other problems and we did, but the European Union’s been very tough and it’s our turn to – you know, we get a turn of that also.
“But they have not been fair, they sue our companies and win massive amounts of money – they sued Apple, won $17billion, and they use that for other reasons, I guess, or to run the European Union.
“So I’m not knocking it, they’re doing what they should be doing perhaps for the European Union, but it does create ill will.”
He added: “The EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States.”
