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LAST UPDATE | 3 Apr
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MINISTER Jack Chambers has said the extent of the tariffs that were announced by the US President Donald Trump has not been seen for 100 years.
Speaking to reporters at the Department of Finance in Dublin today, he said it is predicted the tariffs will have a serious impact on consumer confidence, investment confidence, and could potentially increase costs for ordinary citizens.
Giving a stark statement, he said:
“The last time the scope or extent that this was tried globally in trading terms, was in the early around 1930 which led to the Great Depression. In fact, the tariffs that are being imposed now are in excess of that.”
On a more positive note, he said it is a more diverse global economy, stating that Ireland is coming to this from a point of strength.
“But what’s been announced yesterday, and the extent of it hasn’t been seen for 100 years, and it will be a great disruptor to the trading environment as we know today.”
His comments come after Taoiseach Micheál Martin said “recessionary trends” could be felt across the world due to the US tariff fallout.
It’s a political challenge as much as it is an economic one.
Tánaiste Simon Harris told RTÉ’s Prime Time tonight that, while Ireland is taking a “calm, measured” approach, the days and weeks ahead will show whether Trump is willing to do the same.
He said that the tariff fallout may not only have implications for the immediate future, but for “the next generation in terms of the economic model for this country, the European Union, and for global trade”.
Harris, however, would not give away a specific percentage that Ireland would be happy with, as it would be “foolish” to negotiate on television.
Standing next to Ireland’s EU Commissioner and former finance minister, Michael McGrath, the Taoiseach said Ireland will “weather the storm”.
McGrath was at pains to reiterate that the focus at European level is on the negotiations between the US and the EU.
Areas such as support packages for businesses and countermeasures up for consideration will only happen if the negotiations fail, said McGrath.
“We do need to bring this back to people. People get hurt when tariffs are imposed, people can lose their jobs, prices can go up, the price of medicines can go up.
“Lots of bad things happen when tariffs are imposed in an unjustified and unilateral manner like this so the EU is not at the point of looking at other instruments. Our focus is on trade and getting a good outcome in negotiations,” he said.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said in terms of when tax take implications might be felt, it will depend on whether the tariffs are permanent or whether a negotiated agreement can be reached between the US and EU, he said.
The first indications will come through a fall in consumer sentiment, people holding back on investment and also through a roll back in pay increases for workers, he added.
Speaking about job losses and a fall off in job creation, he predicted that would be felt in the medium term rather than in the short term.
When asked what his message is to members of the public, who are feeling anxious about what is to come and who might be questioning making big life decisions, Donohoe said that the affects on people will vary from person-to-person.
Some workers will be employed in sectors that are significantly affected by this as their employers in Ireland do a lot of business in the US, he said.
Others might work in companies that trade within the EU or domestically, and are therefore unlikely to be significantly or directly affected by the big changes, said the minister.
He said the government understands the “anxiety and apprehension that many people are facing”.
“But we are in an economy in which there are so many people at work, which there is still a high demand for workers and in which we have public finances that are safe, and funds that put in place to provide safety in the future,” he said.
“We know this is a time of apprehension for lots of people, but we do want to confirm today that at this point in the year, things are on track, and we’re going to be working to put together plans to try to be of help,” said Donohoe.
Earlier today, the Taoiseach said it was “somewhat early” to be talking about support for businesses, adding it was “not the end of the story”.
“I think it’s somewhat early yet to be talking in terms of supports,” he added.
“I think this is not the end of the story. It’s not too late for negotiations. I think there is some part of this yet to be determined.
“I understand that Commissioner (Maros) Sefcovic will be engaging (US) Secretary of Commerce in the next number of days, if not tomorrow.
“So, my understanding is we had the announcement last evening. My view is that it will be a period of engagement.
“So, we have to see where this settles and every crisis is different, so the kind of supports that were in the previous crisis may not apply in this case,” said Martin.
McGrath warned that if the relationship goes wrong between the US and the EU, the consequences are “multifaceted and will be felt everywhere”, stating that it is not just big business that will feel the impacts, but also smaller businesses downstream and those in the supply chains.
The message from the Taoiseach is that this is early days and it is still unclear what the outcomes might be.
“It is important that we take on board that this has some distance to go yet… no doubt that the world is changed and the old order is gone, but the new order has not been determined,” he added.
Martin said the feedback so far from the US is that negotiations are the preferred route forward.
“The next 48 hours will tell a lot. What I get from the President’s speech is very much sort of wanting to engage, and signalling a desire to engage, to negotiate a sensible settlement here.”
He also said it will be “extremely difficult” to get the right balance in making a “collective response” from across European countries to the tariffs imposed by the US.
He said that is why the EU is seeking to go down a negotiation pathway.
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Global? Start at home first.
This government needs to do more to support the largest employer in Ireland, SME’s.
Great country if you are Google etc. God help anyone looking to run their own business tho!
Large players like Google actually distort the market here, welcome as they are.
You have mid level managers thinking 80k is their right, not something that is unheard of in most of Europe. Rent and property prices in Dublin driven crazy by high paying multi-nationals which destroy the competitiveness of the country.
Most of our exports come from 40 US owned companies, over 85% in fact. What a position to place oneself in.
Multi-nationals are lovely to have but they are in terms of economic sustainability and jobs they are a distant second in importance to SME’s.
Double edged sword,
Seanie, multinationals were our one saving grace when the sh!t hit the fan in 2007 so I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss their importance. They also create service industries around them which are equally just as important. And if as you say they represent 85% of our experts what do you propose replaces that? It’s not like we have a tonne of natural resources to tap into.
It is the sheer volume of the Pharma industry that distorts the exports.
We live in hope that America will not need someday to refocus tax at home in a recession or jobs at home for political reasons. What a gamble.
Our trade balance is a complete mirage due to Multi-nationals.
Focusing in on SME’s is much more important than Multinationals, they provide most of this countries jobs and spending.
We’ll never reduce unemployment just using multi-nationals, we’ll never have a sustainable tax base or economy by over relying on them.
There are a lot of sme’s that can be brought up to being large players.
Companies like Kerry Group, Glanbia CRH etc are leading global players in their fields, they are some of our multi-nationals, investing large sums all over globe.
Rental increases have nothing to do with google. It’s to do with the lack of housing supply due to a collapsed construction industry based on FF policy.
Don’t forget the planners J. They are still insisting developers build apartments in the middle of no where despite the obvious demand for 3 and 4 bed houses. I’m amazed this isn’t getting more media attention.
Govt too busy bending over for foreign multinationals and rolling out the red carpet for snakes like Donald Trump to help Irish SMEs. I see they’ve brought in an extra USC level now for self employed people. Shows you where their priorities lie.
Self employed earning over 100k. Hardening throttling enterprise is it?
A self employed person has more right to 100k than a high level manager in someone else’s business.
I haven’t much problem with the higher charge at that level but it is very wrong that it is just targeting the self employed. It should be across the board.
The higher tax rate for the self employed who are on reasonable wages shows that the self employed are actively targeted for bleeding.
C’mere to me, where do I get a job that pays €29 per hour??
Primary teacher!
Be a crappie hooker……
When is the next protest against water charges in Dublin?
NEXT Water charge protest: [NOVEMBER, 1st. DUBLIN]
Would like to see the relationship between average gross pay and net pay between Ireland and rest of EU. We have high gross salaries but I imagine they are so high to make up for all the tax and deductions. Talking Private sector here. Public Sector is another animal completely.
In most of Western Europe the tax take is much higher on average, never mind that property tax and water rates are also higher.
The tax wedge is much higher across Western Europe people, ye might not like that fact but that is still a fact.
That’s simply not true Seanie.
A useful graph to include would be each countries % spend of GDP. Most of the EE states with low cost of labour have less than 40% of GDP spent by governments. This with higher % spend have higher hourly rates. Relationship is striking
To take on them we will have to kick every high productivity business out of Ireland.
That is the key difference, most of them do not have any, at any level.
How is competing with high unemployment, low value businesses with poor national infrastructures a good idea.
Luddite.
That’s not my point at all. But I won’t waste my time or yours educating you
Why are labor costs in Ireland always so distorted?
Fact is the Irish worker has 20 days paid holidays in a year.
In Germany the Worker has 30 days paid annual leave ?
First three days of sick leave is at the employees expense.
In Germany sick pay is covered 100% from day (for a limited period of time)
The books are being seriously cooked here it is a complete lie that the Irish worker is so expensive.
However compare the wages of Lawyers,doctors and the public service teachers and politicians.
Our s are some of the worlds most expensive. The Wage issue is pure profiteer propaganda.
So what if we are still above the EU average, we are cheaper on that scale than most of our competitors. We’ll never beat countries like Spain or Portugal or Cyprus on wages, unless we consider cutting wages by 50% and kicking out the high wage multi-nationals.
We pay professional people, senior managers, doctors etc way too much, in many cases double even what wealthy European countries pay.
Legal fees here are outrageous and it is very wrong and selfish that no Govt. have tackled the Law Society here and its closed shop. It is an extortion on Irish society and deeply damaging to business here.
Do you ever take a break from commenting on here. Find yourself a hobby well ye
Ah yes, it’d be great if we could just not pay all the people that do all the work and watch the money roll in. A capitalists wet dream.
Welcome to Jobridge Ireland…
Yeah great place u can pay your employees as little as possible. Zero hour contracts jobbridge.fcukn assault on the working class
“Is Ireland really ‘the best small country in the world to do business in’?”
Not with that preposition dangling on the end of its sentence it’s not!
I guess I’m just going to have to pay a few per cent extra tax to set up my soon-to-be-highly-lucrative grammar auditing consultancy in a country with some syntactic credibility. Well done Ireland – that’s one more highly skilled job you’ve allowed to slip through your bungling fingers!!!
Only prescriptive grammarians would present such a narrow, limited and mostly historical interpretation of syntax; it belongs back in the 18th century along with Bishop Lowth. Most modern grammarians accept the proposition that language is better analysed in terms of a lexical approach.
Q. Is Ireland…blah blah blah?
A. No
Enda says it is
No
Support Small businesses
Great country if your name is O’Brien
have your say