Harris to stress importance of Irish trade to US during Lutnick meeting

Tanaiste Simon Harris is to tell US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick about the importance of Irish trade to America during their meeting later this week, according to a Fine Gael minister.

Patrick O’Donovan, Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport, said that Mr Harris will be advocating for bilateral relations between Ireland and the US.

The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade is expected to meet the US secretary of commerce on Wednesday.

It comes as government ministers and businesses grapple with the 20% tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

Mr Lutnick has been critical of Ireland’s tax arrangements, claiming it runs a trade surplus at America’s expense.

Mr Harris held a late-night call with Mr Lutnick a number of weeks ago, which the Fine Gael minister described as a “useful opportunity to exchange views”.

Speaking on RTE’s The Week In Politics programme, Mr O’Donovan, said the Tanaiste will be doing two things during his conversation with Mr Lutnick.

“He will obviously be articulating, as we all did in the United States during the St Patrick’s Day visit, the importance of bilateral relations and the importance of Irish trade to America,” he said.

The minister added that Irish companies employ tens of thousands of people across the United States.

“But the other thing you need to be doing is to be articulating a very simple message from the European Union, which is that this is a European Union competency, and we will negotiate on behalf of all the member states of the European Union.”

Mr O’Donovan was critical of the characterisation of the US as a “importing only nation” by some in America.

He said: “American politicians and some American media outlets have characterised the United States as some sort of importing nation only, and it doesn’t export anything, which, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth.

“They’re exporting to a block of 450 million people. We are not insignificant here. That’s the other thing that we’re being portrayed as, as some sort of insignificant group of countries, which, of course, we’re not.

“We are a very significant purchaser of global goods, and we have a number of free trade agreements with a number of different countries.”

Sinn Fein’s Claire Kerrane, who is the party’s children and disability spokesperson, said the government needs to prepare for a “worst-case scenario”.

She also backed calls from industry leaders for government supports to be put in place for workers and firms affected by US tariffs.

The Roscommon-Galway TD said: “We have to be very careful in terms of next step and what our next step is. I think more important than any of that, we have to do our proprietary work here to ensure that we are given supports, that supports are available, they’re on the table for businesses, that they’re ready to go tomorrow.

“We need that analysis, sector by sector, and we also need to ensure that we prepare for a worst-case scenario here in Ireland.”

She said a worst-case scenario would see the pharma and tech sector hit by tariffs.

“We need to work hand in hand with the North as an all-Ireland economy, because the bottom line is, we are dealing with a leader who does not make decisions based on facts and we saw that with the US trade document,” she added.

Labour’s enterprise, tourism and employment spokesperson and TD for Wexford, George Lawlor, said there is funding available through the national Social Insurance Fund to back such a scheme.

“We need to ensure that… the workforce feels that they have a future in the context of the companies that they’re working in,” Mr Lawlor told RTE.

“If we abandon them, we go back, if we look at what happened in the recession and when the economy was bankrupt, if we had have been able to hold on to some of our construction workers, for instance, we probably wouldn’t have been in the position that we are.”