Tanaiste calls for EU to start formal trade negotiations with US
Tánaiste Simon Harris has warned that there 'isn't a moment to lose' and called for 'formal' trade negotiations between the US and EU as the halfway point of Donald Trump's 90-day tariff pause approaches.
Mr Harris, who is the Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister, also warned the US President that it would be 'bad faith' to implement sector-specific tariffs, such as on pharma, while negotiations are ongoing.
In early April, Mr Trump announced that 20 per cent tariffs would be applied to all goods entering the US from the EU. He later announced a 90-day pause on these measures, with a 10% tariff applicable in the interim. The 90-day pause will expire on July 8.
Mr Harris was in Brussels on Thursday for a meeting with other Foreign Affairs Ministers as part of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
The Tánaiste was also scheduled to meet EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.
On his way into the meeting, Mr Harris told reporters that he believed it was time for formal negotiations between the US and the EU.
He said: 'We're nearly at the halfway point of the [90-day] pause and, therefore, there isn't a moment to lose in terms of getting into substantive engagement between the EU and the US.
'I think the EU have shown real form in relation to this, in constructively engaging with the United States, in Maros Sefcovic staying in very close contact with his counterparts in Washington.
'But now I believe it's the time for formal engagement and negotiation to begin.'
Mr Harris stated he held a roundtable meeting in Government Buildings earlier this week with the pharmaceutical industry.
Mr Trump has regularly warned he would tariff the European pharma industry and earlier this week, ordered them to reduce drug prices in the US, even if it meant higher prices in the EU.
The Tánaiste stated that the sector is 'very important' in both Ireland and the EU.
He continued: 'It's really important that in our negotiations with the EU and the US that [pharma] is included.
'I think it would be extraordinarily bad faith if the US was to take any actions against a sector whilst the EU and the US are in a process of engagement.
'I would repeat my call that there should be no further escalatory actions by the US when we're trying to actually engage and find a way forward.'
The Tánaiste said that Ireland is still analysing the list of EU countermeasures that will be implemented if no deal can be struck with the Trump administration, but stated that agrifood, medtech and aviation measures included in the plans are 'particular causes of concern and impact for Ireland'.
Mr Harris said 10% tariffs 'cannot become the new norm' and that now that the US has negotiated with the UK and China, he hopes that 'bandwidth can now be applied, from a US point of view, to engaging in a substantive and meaningful way with the European Union'.
He added: 'I find it somewhat concerning that when you do see deals that the US have cut in relation to trade, those deals might make a country better off in terms of their trading relationship with the US than they were two weeks ago, but objectively worse off than they were three or four months ago.'
Mr Harris told Cabinet earlier this week that he believed the deal between the US and the UK would 'solidify and normalise' tariffs.
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