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WHEN PUTTING TOGETHER our gallery of Ireland’s 20 best trading partners for 2011, we came across one particular stat which showed just how difficult it can be to try and build an economic recovery largely fuelled by exports.
There’s one country – among the highest consumers of Irish goods – which has sent us more and more stuff in the last few years, a statistic which makes it more and more difficult to build a positive trade surplus.
Well, when we say ‘country’, we mean ‘three countries’… because the area in question is Great Britain.
While Britain has always between a happy consumer of Irish goods and services – with exports growing by a decent €622 million last year – the good work was undone by a rampant year for British exports back to Ireland.
Ireland imported €13.82 billion of British produce in 2010 – but that rose to €15.62 billion last year. The end result is that Ireland’s trade deficit with Britain deteriorated to the tune of €1.174 billion.
To put that in context, if you take the US out of the picture, our losses to Britain are almost as high as the gains we made from the next four best trading partners: France (€395m), Italy (€383m), Israel (€245m) and Denmark (€221m).
As for Northern Ireland, meanwhile… the North just missed out on the Top 20 of countries which proved better for the Republic last year.
Although imports from the six counties to the 26 counties crossed the €1 billion barrier last year – from €990m to €1.047bn (and not all of that is professional footballers) – exports grew from €1.316bn to €1.408bn. That leaves the Republic some €36m better off.
After Britain, the countries which made the biggest dents in Ireland’s trade surplus were Malaysia (€236m), Spain (€207m), the Netherlands (€141m) and South Korea (€132m).
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Didn’t Tesco Ireland change their stock range a year or two ago to include less Irish goods and more UK-produced foods? That change alone could count for alot of this difference. I think Irish exports growing by so much last year is a great sign though.
Yes many Irish products gone from tesco shelves, doubt they will ever return, every lidl helps !!!!!!
I remember that. The idea was to buy UK goods to lower their prices to stop customers cross-border shopping… This was supposed to be a good thing for the exchequer… ???
Makes sense…
Stop buying English football club’s kits.
Yes support the hoops !
I don’t actually follow any sports teams, Irish or UK. I always find it ironic though, how we have all these fiercely patriotic folk who curse the English at every opportunity but nonetheless support English footy teams and buy their kits… and might just deck you if you knock their chosen team!
Can any fans of UK teams answer this for me? What is the process an Irish person goes through when choosing a British team? Do you pick the one that’s doing best at the time and stick with them? Genuinely curious.
You spelt “Soccer” wrong.
I’ll buy whatever I want Sovereign. Should I stop buy NFL merchandise too?
If an Irish product is good enough and suitably priced, people will buy it. Simple economics.
They are one of irelands best costumers so what’s the problem
The UK were the first to row in with a loan for 12bn when nobody else wanted to know us
It’s only right that we support our friends
It’s not Luke the Germans or French give a damn about us
Agreed, but the loan was for 3.4 Bn. That’s not what they will tell you of course. According the your average Red top reader, they saved us single handedly and we damn well owe them! Besides, they’ll get most of the benefit of it, as it’s all going back to their banks anyway.
Neither do the Brits.
Do they make all our costumes?
When you see our high streets you can see why we have a high trade deficit with GB.
You can see a Tesco,M&S,Topman Riverisland and many more to name while Irish stores like roches stores and Peats are closing I’m surprised the trade deficit isn’t higher.
Roches stores was sold willingly to Debenhams…..
Yeah sorry,meant say that Roches is closed.
Not in anyway discrediting any British stores but we only have the likes of Arnotts,Brown Tomas and cleary’s left in Dublin,If there gone we look like any high street in Manchester or Liverpool.
Went to Tesco’s there the other day and some of their products were priced in pounds while some fruit products had small stickers over the pound signs.Another thing to point out I say Tesco is one or not the most profitable British companies in Ireland,Tesco doesn’t show what profits it makes in Ireland,So god knows how much their making here?
think I read in an ad that Tesco is the world’s largest buyer of Irish food with Irish products stocked at international Tesco stores in places like Malaysia and sister stores in America. so they’re not all bad re Irish product promotion.
@Dion
Was that ad a Tesco ad by any chance??
Well I just hope that Tesco is playing its part in helping local growers.
If the local growers charge too much, and Irish consumers demand lower prices, then you can’t expect Tesco to buy solely from local growers. Their responsibility is to create wealth for their shareholders not overpriced gombeen farmers!
@Eugene it was probably a Tesco ad alright (this is what they say on their website http://www.tesco.ie/corporate-responsibility/suppliers.htm ). SuperValu stocks a higher % of Irish products in its stores but the sheer size of Tesco means it beats everyone on volume. Saw TV doc a few months ago, with the supermarkets cutting the prices to Irish suppliers (plus any special offers such as ‘buy one get one free’ or special positioning in supermarket is done at the expense of the supplier NOT the supermarket). As the large supermarkets control such a high % of the grocery sector, suppliers don’t feel like they can speak up, as they’d lose business v quickly.
Lets not forget England was the only one of our so called EU Partners to lend us €6b with no strings attached. Yes I know its to their advantage that we have money to buy their goods……….but as I said no strings………..no screwing us like the ECB & our other EU partners like Germany, France and Finland
The interest rate was fairly substantial and besides we are one of their biggest markets. There are no friends in foreign affairs.
if at first you dont succeed BLAME THE BRITS!
The Mainland ha ha ha………
Not just “mainland” – “British mainland”. The point is to differentiate it from Northern Ireland, which is handled separately as is outlined later in the piece.
Then why not just say Great Britain? It’s another island. To reach the mainland you need to keep going.
Can an island not be a mainland? What do people from Achill call the main part of Mayo?
You had already distinguished when you said ‘three countries’…reminds me of the time I went into a shop in Dublin around Crimbo and the lad behind the counter chatting with his mate asked ‘so what are you up to on Boxing Day?’ Mainland? KMRIA….
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mainland?s=t
noun
1.
the principal land of a country, region, etc., as distinguished from adjacent islands or a peninsula: the mainland of Greece.
Nuff said. Gavan used the term correctly as used in the North. That said, bound to cause controversy if you’re based in the Republic.
@censored – To be fair, that’s fair enough. I didn’t realise the word had an inherent connotation of affiliation in that way. I’ll amended it now. To everyone else: apologies for my premature glibness.
With respect Gavin not sure who you hang out with in NI but the majority do not tend to refer to GB as the mainland. Years ago on people on regional TV would often refer to the mainland, rerely if ever hear it these days.
Ooooooooh thats it. The Bisto is coming off my shopping list from now on.
Begrudgy…
It won’t be just the Bisto coming off your shopping list if you look at it from that angle.
Why is it that whenever Ireland goes through an adverse stage they look for someone else to blame.
The UK, France, Germany etc.
I realise that Ireland is dwarfed out by economies such as the UK but where would we be without Tesco, Lidl, Aldi etc?
Healthy competition is always favourable for the consumer.
And you have to ask yourself as to why Ireland is increasingly importing from the UK.
I wonder if this has much to do with people switching to online shopping when money is tight. I know of a few people who have started buying more things from Amazon as they think it is cheaper.
Why is there no Kerrygold in Barbados anymore? Been replaced by Anchor from NZ.
Hee hee Conor it’s hard to feel sorry for somebody’s loss of Kerrygold when they’re basking in 28c on a tropical island :) If it makes you feel any better I’m about to tuck in to a Brennan’s Batch loaf heel. Toasted on one side as Sting like’s it. With loads of Kerrygold butter on it.
Alternatively…The single biggest country that improving our standard of living ! So vote No,default,exit euro zone and form bilateral economic and social pact with UK !
The retail side of this equation gives a false interpretation to the balance of trade issue
The British were to first to support us with a loan for £12bn when nobody else wanted to know
It wasn’t a handout it is a loan, one which we pay big interest on……
Sean, Tuba said it was a loan. He didn’t say it was a handout…
That was part of the “bailout” loans
You see this proves that we all really aspire to a British lifestyle. If you could tot up the most watched TV stations, the most read magazines what do you think they would be? To all intents and purposes we are back in the Commonwealth!!!
Do the British not therefore aspire to an Irish lifestyle?
The only people in the north I ever heard refer to GB as the ‘mainland’ were bigoted unionist politicians and the RUC.
People should go out of their way to buy Irish. It makes such a difference to our economy, it circulates the money, keeps people working and is the quickest way to get this country back on its feet.
Peats vs maplins !
Ditch tesco and shop Supervalu & Dunnes. At least you see Irish brands on their shelves.
Dunnes? You would be lucky to fill a basket for a €100 there.
Its the European HQ’s based in Dublin to qualify for 12% Corporation Tax. Import to here and then export from here and pay low tax on the difference.
All while Irish politicians fight for low taxes for these carpet bagger salesmen and screw the low paid and unemplyed to pay for this three card trick.
We are governed by fools.
These European HQs emply people, the low paid and unemployed should upskill themselves to make themselves more competitive so that these multinationals will employ them!
The real story here is stirling devaluation and the British production revival.
Genuine question: what do we currently trade with Israel? Is it livestock?
Passports.
A lot of electronics and software.
I never mentioned the UK Rebecca, I just commented on the unnecessary use of the word Great as a prefix to Britain and stand by my contention that there is not anything Great about it so Britain will do just fine thank you very much!
In relation to who gives a toss about it, well I clearly do hence my post. If it bothers you then perhaps you should mull over and dwell on those “bigger things to worry about” as opposed to responding to posts which you don’t have an opinion or care about.
My point is as simple as your post is tedious. There are two often confused/interchangeable terms used for the UK/GB, I was clarifying them as you seemed to have gotten yourself in a little bit of tiz about what they should be called. The article is about trade and the UK, not about the UK’s and it’s so called imperialist naming convention blah blah blah. It is 2012, move on!!!
Actually, the piece was only about (England + Scotland + Wales) – NI, as is mentioned, is categorised separately.
For the record, the only reason I used ‘Great Britain’ is because that’s the name used in the CSO’s data.
Gavan, Tbh I think that Britain would suffice as opposed to the archaic and imperialistic GB oft used by English media. Nothing great about it and unless you are going to use the prefix Great in front of other countries titles then I think you should just scrap it altogether!
Great Britain = England, Wales & Scotland. United Kingdom = England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Who gives a toss if they have Great in front of Britain, there are much more important things going on right now to worry about.
Balance of trade is not necessarily a matter of export surplus = win
These figures are suspect anyway.
Overall balance of trade was in surplus – what is the significance of the UK especially?
The only thing Harney was right about was that we are closer to Boston than Berlin. She could include London along with Boston.
I thought we were closer to Belfast ?
Some sort of a breakdown would have been handy.
Page 51 of this document:
http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/externaltrade/2011/trade_dec2011.pdf
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