The European Union will take some time to think before “comprehensively respond[ing]” to an inundation of tariffs by the US, the Taoiseach has said.
US President, Donald Trump, has promised to impose a range of tariffs on the EU next month. It is thought tariffs will hit EU car manufacturers, the semiconductor industry and, most important to Ireland, pharmaceuticals.
“Costs of medicine are very high in the United States. Tariffs would even lead to higher prices for medicine in the United States. And so I don’t see the logic in that”, said Taoiseach Micheál Martin arriving in Brussels this morning.
EU leaders are meeting today to discuss pressing current affairs including the war in Ukraine. Trump tariffs are also expected to be brought up by some of the leaders of the 27 member states.
Trump is expected to impose fresh tariffs on 2 April.
“Europe will await what happens on April 2nd in terms of any US decisions around tariffs. And Europe will give a bit of time to have a comprehensive response to that. Our view is that Europe has to be strategic in its response”, the Taoiseach said.
His comments come as the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has been speaking in the European Parliament this morning.
She has warned that if the US imposes tariffs of 25 percent, it will “lower Euro area growth by about 0.3 percentage point in the first year”, meaning 2025.
“A European response in the form of raising tariffs on US imports would further increase this to about half a percentage point.”
“The brunt of the impact on economic growth would concentrate around the first year after the rise in tariffs”, she said.
Trump has already imposed 25 percent tariffs on European steel and aluminium.
The EU has responded with “smart” counter-tariffs worth up to €26 billion.
The counter-measures aim to hit US products with “a high iconic value, that have a high symbolic value.”
When the Taoiseach met the US President in Washington earlier this month, the threat of tariffs hung over the meeting.
Donald Trump took aim at Ireland’s low taxes that have lure US pharmaceuticals to Ireland.
“This beautiful island of Ireland of five million people has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grips”, Trump complained.