Further US tariffs ‘highly likely’, Irish deputy premier warns

The US appears to want to implement “tariffs before talks”, Ireland’s deputy premier has said.

Simon Harris also said it is “highly likely” that US President Donald Trump will proceed with further tariffs on the EU on April 2.

The EU has delayed until mid-April its countermeasures to the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to 25%.

It had intended to implement measures on goods from the US worth some 26 billion euro (£21.5 billion) in two phases, on April 1 and April 13.

Mr Trump had announced plans to impose further reciprocal tariffs on April 2.

In the Irish context, Mr Harris had previously said that it would “make sense” for the EU to review the rationale behind which items it had chosen on its countermeasures list.

Ireland’s Government regards the threat of the US responding by imposing a tariff on alcoholic drinks from the EU as a “very serious issue”, as the Irish drinks sector could be massively impacted by such an escalation.

Mr Harris convened a sitting of the Irish Government’s Trade Forum on Friday which was focused on the potential impact of the tariffs.

Speaking to the media afterwards, he said: “We have to be very honest: At this stage, it looks highly likely that there could be significant disruption in terms of announcements from the United States in early April.

Mr Harris welcomed the delay in implementation of EU countermeasures until the middle of April, adding: “I hope that that time can be used for intensive, sensible, calm negotiation to find a way forward – because at the end of the day tariffs are bad for consumers and the US-EU relationship economically is so interdependent.”

Mr Harris, who is also Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, updated the forum on his calls with EU counterparts and European commissioner for trade Maros Sefcovic.

He said: “But the point is we’ve got to control what we can control and we’ve got to influence what we can influence.

“And that means, in an Irish context, we have to really look at things around competitiveness and how we can support the continued offering that Ireland has here as a great location to create jobs, to invest and to help our economy grow.”

He added: “And in terms of influencing what we can influence, we’ve got to continue to work as members of team European Union. We are part of one of the largest trading blocs in the world – that’s brought huge economic advantage.

“But we want to do more with the US, we want to buy more stuff from the United States, but we need to do that in a measure that is calm.”

“I think it looks highly likely at this stage and the working assumption would have to be that President Trump seems determined on April 2 or in and around then to announce a series of tariff measures on the European Union,” he said.

“I think that’s really regrettable. We’d much rather have talks before tariffs, it seems the United States wants to have tariffs before talks.

“We think that approach is wrong but we have to control what we can control. So we continue to make the case for engagement now.

“And let me be very clear – because sometimes there’s misinformation and disinformation out there – the European Union wants to talk today, wants to find a way forward today.

“But you’ve obviously got to have an interlocutor that also wants to talk.”