Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke has warned against economic protectionism in the wake of the US election result.
Speaking in Dublin on Wednesday after Donald Trump was re-elected as US president, Mr Burke said the Government would work with the new US administration and emphasise the importance of trade and co-operation.
“We all need to make that journey together, and if one country starts embarking on very significant economic protectionism, it leaves the globe at a significant disadvantage and makes all our journey harder and harder.”
Mr Burke said that tariffs were “obviously the most significant thing”.
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He promised that Ireland would speak “truth to power” in its bilateral relations with the second Trump administration.
He told reporters at Leinster House that it was difficult to predict exactly the path that the US would take on corporation tax, but said he was not unduly concerned by the prospect of US companies immediately leaving Ireland in reaction to reforms or a lower 15 per cent tax rate, as Mr Trump promised in his campaign.
He said the “meat and bones” of the Trump administration’s approach to corporate tax would emerge in the coming period when his cabinet and advisers were appointed.
Asked whether Ireland would revert to a lower rate of corporation tax if developments presented a risk to the State, he said it was important to work multilaterally and through the agreed Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) framework on taxing multinationals.
“It’s so important that we work together, because obviously we don’t want to go isolationist,” he said.
US companies would not be able “pull the anchor and go immediately” due to their links into the Irish economy and its strengths, he added.
Mr Burke said the Biden administration had imposed “very protectionist policies in some regard as well” under its Inflation Reduction Act, and that Europe had responded with State aid interventions. He said a subsidies race would not be to anyone’s benefit.
The “last thing” Ireland wants to see is the introduction of new tariffs, emphasising the importance of rules-based fair trade.
On Palestine, he said Ireland had to “robustly point out” where US foreign policy does not comply with Irish values.
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