Ireland's ‘Viagra village' braces for Trump's tariffs

Telegraph

2 days ago

Nestled along Cork harbour, Ringaskiddy is just one of many Irish villages transformed by the arrival of America's giant pharmaceutical companies.
The area has been nicknamed 'Viagra village' because Pfizer, the US drugs behemoth, manufactures the active ingredient for its erectile dysfunction drug at its site on the south coast of Ireland.
Indeed, the combination of American investment and low corporation tax has fuelled Ireland's economic fortunes, bringing jobs and prosperity to the country over the past two decades.
But for how long?
With 15pc tariffs on EU exports to America, and an investigation by the US commerce department into overseas drug manufacturing, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the coastal area.
On Thursday, Trump escalated his assault on drugmakers further, warning companies including Pfizer to lower prices for Americans by charging higher fees abroad, including in Ireland and Britain.
In a letter to the heads of 17 pharmaceutical businesses, he urged them to 'negotiate harder with foreign freeloading nations' in a veiled jab at Ireland.
It is hard to overstate the impact of US investment on southern Ireland. Cork is home to seven of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and more than 11,000 people are employed directly by the industry in the county.
The village of Ringaskiddy boasts a raft of pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, from Johnson & Johnson to BioMarin, while Cork has around 190 multinational businesses.
But tensions are rising.
'Will there be jobs in three years?'
On a summer's afternoon, it's ladies day at Raffeen Creek Golf Club. The rolling nine-hole course and clubhouse was built by Pfizer just a stone's throw away from where it first set up in Ringaskiddy in 1969.
As they enjoy tea and scones after a round of golf, friends Eleanor Crowley and Kay Desmond say that locals are wary despite the EU trade deal.
Crowley, whose husband worked at Pfizer for more than 35 years, says 'there's no question' the region's pharmaceutical industry will be affected by tariffs.
'They're huge employers in the area and they're good quality jobs,' she says. Crowley adds that her grandson, who has just finished secondary school, is thinking about studying biological sciences.
'I'm wondering now, will there be jobs in three or four years?' she says.
Desmond's son also works in the pharmaceutical industry, while his fiancée is employed by a whiskey company. 'They are a bit nervous,' she says.
In the nearby coastal town of Crosshaven, where holidaymakers mill about the marina, Trump's tariffs remain at the front of locals' minds because of the impact on the region.
Betty O'Halloran, who lives in the area, said the 15pc tariff on EU imports to the US is 'going to affect everybody'.
'Surely if [Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president], if the EU could have done any better, they would have and that Trump is so volatile that he could go back and put 30pc on,' she says.
Down by the Ferry Boat Inn in Ringaskiddy, Bob Levis is also wary of the US president's wavering attitude.
'With Trump, you can't trust him. All right, it's 15pc tariffs now but sure he might change his mind and say he's going to up it for the pharmaceuticals.'
The EU's agreement to buy $750bn (£570bn) worth of US energy products, including liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel have also left him underwhelmed.
He says: '[The EU] did not want a trade war and I can understand that, but I think in their enthusiasm to get a deal I think they rolled over a bit.'
Sarah Murphy, another local resident, says American pharmaceutical companies have brought a wealth of opportunities to the region, but fears are growing about site closures.
'We'll be lost without it and the workers will be lost without it,' she says.
She cites the example of a friend who worked for ILC Dover, a US manufacturing group which supplies the pharma industry. They lost their job last year after ILC shut down its factory in Blarney, near Cork, and moved to Poland.
It's a tale that many fear could happen across the region and for Ireland's economy the stakes could not be higher.
'We live or die by our competitiveness'
Pharmaceuticals and the tech industry have driven much of the country's growth over the past half-century.
The nation has fuelled its budget with corporation tax receipts from American companies, but these are extremely concentrated. Just 10 businesses are responsible for more than half of the country's corporation tax revenue.
In a sign of the pharma sector's importance, the Emerald Isle exported €10.6bn (£9.1bn) in goods to the US in May – up 86.5pc from the same month a year earlier as companies sought to beat the tariff deadline.
There are already fears that a slowdown is on the horizon. GDP fell by 1pc in the second quarter of 2025, and more pain could be around the corner.
Such is the concern that Ireland's political class are starting to worry about the impact on local jobs.
In the Cork suburb of Douglas, Jerry Buttimer, a Fine Gael TD who represents Cork South-Central, says: 'It's been a time of huge worry and tension for everybody. The pharmaceutical community and industry has been and is a pivotal part of the local Cork economy.
'We live in a volatile world where some actors use a bully pulpit to negotiate, to engage. The European Union, with its trading bloc, has taken a different approach.'
Speaking outside Pfizer's Ringskiddy plant in the 'Viagra village', Billy Kelleher, Fianna Fáil MEP, remains hopeful after the trade agreement.
'The biggest fear of all was a protracted trade dispute where there was no end in sight, at least now we have a degree of certainty around the cost of the tariff and the impact that it will have and now companies can plan again.'
As the final details are hammered out, locals are nervously waiting to see how the deal impacts pharmaceuticals.
Kelleher makes the case that Ireland needs to remain 'an attractive option' for investment.
'We live or die by our competitiveness, that has always been the case since we started opening up our economy in the Sixties and Seventies.'
Simon Harris, the Tánaiste and Irish foreign affairs minister, said on Friday that the Irish government had 'assurance from the US that pharma will not get a tariff of any higher than 15pc in the European Union'.
He added that tariffs on pharmaceuticals will remain at 0pc until the US investigation into the sector concludes. It is expected to come to an end in two weeks.
Yet trade tensions have a contagious effect that no drug can cure.