Ireland ‘not exactly celebrating’, minister of state says

Ireland is “not exactly celebrating” the new EU-US trade deal, an Irish minister of state has said, but added that it provides certainty.

US President Donald Trump and European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced on Sunday they have agreed a US tariff on all EU goods of 15%.

That is half the 30% import tax rate Trump had threatened to implement starting on Friday. He said the 27-member bloc would open its markets to US exporters with zero per cent tariffs on certain products.

Neale Richmond, a minister of state in Ireland’s foreign affairs department, said the deal “gives us that certainty that has been lacking in the last number of months”.

Among EU countries, Ireland is the most reliant on the US as an export market.

“We’re not exactly celebrating this, it’s not a case that this is a good thing but it’s probably the least bad option based on what we were facing a couple of days ago, the prospect of a 30% tariff,” Richmond told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster on Monday.

“The EU is a tough negotiator but this isn’t like any trade deal I have ever experienced before, in my 15 odd years of working on EU trade deals. It is what it is and we move on.”

He added: “We don’t want a tariff war, tariffs are a bad thing. We want stability for businesses and we have that today.”

Trump has wielded tariffs against major US trade partners in a bid to reorder the global economy and trim the American trade deficit.

Von der Leyen has hailed the deal, saying it will bring stability for both allies, who together account for almost a third of global trade.

The EU’s top official described the deal as a “framework” agreement, with further technical details to be negotiated “over the next weeks”.

Speaking of the pharmaceutical sector, Richmond said there was a “case made” that certain medications would be tariff free.

“These are some of the areas we will have to dig into, but absolutely we have a lot to work on,” he said.

“The pharmaceutical sector isn’t just really important to a lot of Irish businesses, it must be said it’s really important to a lot of American consumers and crucially patients who rely on these drugs too.”

Speaking following the announcement, Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said the news of the trade deal is “very welcome”.

Martin said the fact that tariffs would still be higher than before would make trade “more expensive and more challenging”.

However, he added that the agreement will bring “a new era of stability” and will “help protect many jobs in Ireland”.

Speaking to Good Morning Ulster on Monday, former UK ambassador to the US Lord Kim Darroch said: “As an outcome, it’s a relief I guess for everyone in the European Union that it’s not worse, but this isn’t anything for great celebration, this is a backwards step.”

In 2024, Ireland exported goods worth £60.4bn ($81.1bn) to the US.

The commission has the mandate to negotiate trade deals for the entire bloc – but it still requires approval by EU member states, whose ambassadors will meet on Monday for a debrief from the commission.