Ireland would be in ‘much worse position' without EU-US trade deal, says Harris in avoided tariff ‘catastrophe' claim
US president Donald Trump signed an executive order that sees tariffs of 15 per cent or above imposed on trading partners including Brazil, Lesotho, Taiwan and Switzerland.
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The deal sees 15 per cent tariffs on most EU goods
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Harris reckons Ireland would be a 'much worst position' if there was no deal
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There are 'zero for zero' tariffs on a number of products including aircraft, some agricultural goods and certain chemicals - as well as EU purchases of US energy worth 750 billion dollars over three years.
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He claimed: 'Without a deal between the US and the EU, today would have seen 30 per cent tariffs introduced by President Trump on the EU, and would also have seen very, very significant counter measures introduced by the EU to the tune of around 90 odd billion euro.
'There's absolutely no doubt that that would have been a moment of catastrophe in terms of our economic wellbeing as a country.'
He added: 'We'd be in a very different and a much worse position I think if we were standing here today with no deal.
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'You don't have to take my word for that, if you just see the executive order last night and all of the tariffs levelled in other countries, including countries that didn't have deals.
'They were generally much, much higher than the tariff rate for the European Union.'
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