The world “cannot afford” a trade war, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
Addressing an economic conference in Killarney, he acknowledged the US was “anxious” to get a trade deal and that it had issues it wanted resolved but he said he also believed the European Union was being “sensible” and wanted to land the deal in “a reasonable zone”.
His comments came hours after US president Donald Trump said he would extend the deadline for the European Union to face 50 per cent tariffs until July 9th after a phone call with Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it,” Mr Trump told reporters late on Sunday at Morristown Airport in New Jersey on his way back to Washington.
Ms Von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said earlier Sunday in a post on X that “Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” but “a good deal” will need “time until July 9th.”
[ Cliff Taylor: What does Trump’s EU tariff threat mean for Ireland? Opens in new window ]
That’s the date that Mr Trump’s 90-day pause of his so-called reciprocal tariffs had originally been set to end.
Speaking in Brussels, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said it appeared Mr Trump was frustrated the EU had not “just rolled over” and given in to US demands, which include paring back strict food safety standards and regulations on tech companies.
“We are one of the most important trading partners for the US, so we shouldn’t just agree to whatever the demand is from the White House,” he said.
The EU had been slated for a 20 per cent tariff under the reciprocal rates announced by the US in April, and a temporary pause took the rate down to 10 per cent through July 9th.
But Mr Trump on Friday threatened to impose a higher, 50 per cent tariff on the EU starting June 1st after complaining the bloc was slow-walking negotiations and unfairly targeting US companies with lawsuits and regulations.
The threat had been seen as an attempt by Mr Trump to bounce the EU into making concessions in ongoing negotiations.
Mr Martin said the trade tariff negotiations – he wouldn’t use the word “war”, Mr Martin said to some laughter – had not reached a landing point yet. At the moment “uncertainty” was the big issue which is and will dampen investment, he said of the tariff situation.
Europe needed to look at opportunities too. In a climate of tariffs and protectionism, there was opportunity for Ireland and for Europe to look internally and make itself more competitive, to double down and expand on the single market.
Also in Brussels on Monday, Minister of State for international development, Neale Richmond said negotiations to head off damaging tariffs on trade introduced by the United States were about “damage limitation”,
“I think it should be important to say we’re into a damage limitation space. The decisions of the US administration [are] beyond our control, certainly the rhetoric has been very worrying and will continue to be,” he said.
“We don’t need to react or indeed overreact to every iteration, or indeed social media post, from the US administration,” the Fine Gael TD said.
The Taoiseach also called for a more informed debate on data centres, saying he felt the debate on data centres domestically was often “ill informed” and negative.
“We need perspective on this,” Mr Martin said.
Discussions are continuing between the Government and the commission, about an EU package of retaliatory tariffs to hit US goods, in the event trade talks fail. The proposed counter-tariffs would target US agricultural products, bourbon whiskey, medical devices and Boeing aircraft, which has caused concern in Government.
It is “very difficult” to draw up a list of US products to raise tariffs on, that did not impact sectors and industries important to EU states, Mr Heydon said.
[ Taoiseach disappointed by Trump’s threat of 50% tariffs on EUOpens in new window ]
The EU has been struggling to understand what Mr Trump is looking for in trade negotiations. Officials have suggested that the EU and US could take their tariffs down to zero on many goods, but Mr Trump has been focused on what he calls non-tariff trade barriers.
Deputy US treasury secretary Michael Faulkender said on Fox News hours earlier that the US faces a “simultaneous challenge” of negotiating with the EU as a bloc on tariffs while also seeking to address most of those non-tariff barriers in talks with individual European nations, creating a “negotiation problem”.
Mr Trump’s 50 per cent tariff threat would hit $321 billion (€281 billion) worth of US-EU goods trade, lowering US gross domestic product by close to 0.6 per cent and boosting prices by more than 0.3 per cent, according to Bloomberg calculations. – Additional reporting, Bloomberg
