The pharmaceutical industry looks set to be the target of US President Donald Trump’s next round of tariff announcements, with the American President highlighting Ireland’s success in attracting that sector.
The comments came as President Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on all imported vehicles and foreign-made auto parts, a move that marks a significant escalation in the global trade war.
President Trump in February this year threatened a 25 percent “or higher” tariff on imported pharmaceuticals, but did not mention specific regions by name.
Speaking at the announcement in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said “We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back.
“We don’t make anything here in terms of drugs, medical drugs, different types of drugs that you need, medicines.”
“It’s in other countries, largely made in China, a lot of it made in Ireland. Ireland was very smart, we love Ireland,” he said, adding, “but we’re gonna have that”.
During his meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the White House earlier this month, Mr Trump said that Ireland had taken away America’s “pharmaceutical and other companies away through taxation,” adding that “we do have a massive deficit with Ireland”.
“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,” Mr Trump said on that occasion.
The taoiseach has previously said that if tariffs are placed on pharmaceutical products, it will raise the price of drugs in the US, which Mr Martin described as already “very high”.
“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,” he told reporters in Brussels just days ago.
Ireland last year exported a record €72 billion worth of goods to the US last year, with pharmaceutical products making up a large proportion of that.
A report released this week by global consultancy group Sia warned that US tariffs could significantly disrupt Ireland’s pharmaceutical exports and biopharma industry.
“Ireland must enhance its value proposition beyond traditional tax advantages and build collaborative innovation clusters that integrate industry, academia and startups to create a fertile ecosystem for sustainable growth,” the study recommended in light of the potential threat.