The world came extraordinarily close in recent days to a moment of significant economic crisis and challenge over proposed new US economic tariffs, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has said.
Speaking after a meeting of the Government’s trade forum on Friday, he said recent events that saw the Trump administration in the US threaten a number of European countries with additional trade tariffs should act as a “wake-up call” for both Ireland and Europe to become more competitive and resilient.
He said while there may have been a sigh of relief after US president Donald Trump changed his mind on imposing additional tariffs over the issue of the future of Greenland, “fundamental issues of concern still remain”.
“We came extraordinarily close to a moment of major economic crisis and challenge. We have seen a situation where within a very short period of time, the threat of additional tariffs on European Union member states was levied and indeed for the first time, the conflation of trade tariffs with sovereignty and with territory.”
Mr Harris said while thankfully there had been a de-escalation, it was prudent “that we accelerate our planning for various scenarios in the time ahead”.
He said he had asked officials in the Department of Finance to look again at plans for various events that could take place in future.
He said the EU needed to become more self reliant not just in terms of defence but also in relation to economic, cyber and digital security.
He said it would be “foolish” to assume the US will not use the threat of tariffs again.
“It would be a brave person to try to predict the president of the United States’ mind in relation to this,” he said.
Mr Harris also said he could not see any scenario in which Ireland would take a seat on the proposed Board of Peace that is being established by Mr Trump.
“A board that [Russian] president [Vladimir] Putin has been invited to? I mean, there’s a complete oxymoron. Putin and peace.
“Secondly, you’re paying a billion dollars? We won’t be doing that. And thirdly, the idea that you’d end up setting up some form of a structure that I think essentially would compete with the United Nations or something is very hard to understand.
“I was reading its charter and its governance structure yesterday, the president of the United States would get to pick his successor, could decide who has to leave the board, who could come on the board.
“So could you have a situation where somebody would raise a viewpoint and speak up for the values of their country, and you’d be kicked off the board?”
He said Ireland would consider joining a board that would oversee peace in Gaza and “consider financially contributing in any manner or means”.
Meanwhile, at the meeting of the Government’s trade forum on Friday, Ministers maintained that with the immediate threat of new tariffs off the table, the priority was the implementation of the trade agreement reached between the EU and the US last summer.
However, it is understood that Ministers stressed “the need for continued vigilance in light of trade uncertainty”.
Ministers also welcomed progress on a trade deal between the EU and India, which, they said, would likely have positive outcomes.
Mr Harris as well as Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee took part in the meeting, which was the tenth occasion that the trade forum had been convened.
Ms McEntee updated the forum on current EU-UK relations and “stressed the desire to see agreements reached in the current negotiations on emissions trading systems and sanitary and phytosanitary rules”.