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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump launched a global tariff increase on 5 April, targeting over 57 different countries that are active exporters of goods into the United States.
The move represents a significant shift in US trade policy, with implications for economies around the globe, including Ireland, whose industries, as an island nation, are deeply embedded in international supply chains.
Last year, total Irish exports to the United States were valued at approximately €72.6 billion. Of this, about €58 billion is attributable to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
Meanwhile, food exports to the USA and North America rose by 14% in 2024 to a total of €2 billion, according to Bord Bia. These figures highlight the scale of Ireland’s economic interdependence with the US, a partnership that is now being tested by tariffs.
The first phase of Trump’s tariffs hit food exports, with a 20% additional tariff applied across European Union partners. Irish food products, known for their quality, now face sharp price increases. For example, the cost of a pound of Irish butter could reach $11.
While this may not deter loyal diaspora consumers, overall demand may decline due to the product’s elastic nature. This means that significant price increases could lead to a noticeable drop in consumption among more price-sensitive buyers.
Perishable goods are particularly vulnerable. Delays in US import inspections, reminiscent of early Brexit fears, could lead to local oversupply and product spoilage. There is even a risk of revisiting the ‘butter mountains’ of the past, where stockpiles of surplus goods suppressed market prices within the EU.
Tariffs on pharmaceutical and chemical products, which were expected to be announced on 9 April, are envisaged to have an even more substantial impact. These products are considered typically inelastic, with demand unlikely to fall significantly.
However, supply chain disruptions could result in drug shortages and regulatory delays. Although many pharmaceutical products have a longer shelf-life than food, expiration dates and compliance with FDA standards remain pressing concerns.
A closer look at recent data from the US Census Bureau (2024) reveals that the US maintains a trade deficit with Ireland, importing significantly more from Ireland than it exports. This is largely driven by high-value sectors such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices and tech products.
Much of this success is due to US multinationals like Pfizer, Apple and Amgen operating out of Ireland and re-exporting goods to the US Ireland’s role as a top contributor to the US goods trade deficit highlights just how strategically important this trading relationship is, particularly considering Trump’s tariffs.
The complexity of modern supply chains is often overlooked, with media coverage often portraying international trade as a simple transaction, for example, as an EU car sold to the US, or a US aircraft shipped to Europe. The global economy, however, is powered by complex supply chains of raw materials, components, work-in-progress assemblies and systems that cross multiple borders before a finished product reaches consumers.
These supply chains could also include reverse movements, such as the return of goods, recycling, and disposal of waste, which add another layer of complexity and logistical coordination. These interconnected supply networks mean that tariffs applied at one point can reverberate throughout entire industries, causing delays, cost increases and logistical challenges across regions.
Digitial trade, though less directly impacted by tariffs, could still face disruption through regulatory divergence, uncertainty in data transfer agreements and reduced business confidence. While there have been discussions in the EU about potential retaliatory measures targeting US digital services, Irish officials have emphasised that such moves would be economically damaging given Ireland’s role as a major hub for US tech companies. Nonetheless, even speculative threats can increase uncertainty for firms and investors in the digital economy.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which lack the scale and financial buffers of multinationals, are likely to be hit hardest by increased tariffs. Unlike larger firms, SMEs often have limited capacity to absorb cost hikes, diversify markets quickly, or handle complex customs procedures, making them particularly vulnerable to trade disruptions.
For example, Irish whiskey maker Clonakilty, facing a 20% duty under Trump’s tariffs, has already pivoted its export focus towards Asia and the UK to maintain competitiveness. Anecdotally, some firms have had orders cancelled, customers requesting that they pay the additional tariffs on import, while others are living with uncertainty with goods currently in transit.
Both the Irish food and pharmaceutical sectors thrive on highly developed supply chain ecosystems, encompassing everything from specialist packaging to logistics, patient information leaflets for pharma and ingredients. Many multinational packaging companies based in Ireland support these sectors directly. While some components can be substituted, many are niche, regulated and difficult to replicate quickly.
Our knowledge economy is also central to these industries. Ireland’s universities, including TU Dublin, have played a key role in supporting US firms through tailored programmes and research partnerships. Building such an academic-industrial ecosystem in the US would likely take six to 10 years, even under the most ambitious plans.
Trump’s goal of reshoring production to “Make America Great Again” faces several hurdles. Substituting premium Irish food products with domestically sourced alternatives in the US is unlikely in the short term, given the high standards and global reputation of Irish producers.
In the pharmaceutical space, the logistics and regulatory challenges to reshoring are considerable. The average build time for a greenfield facility is three–five years, with regulatory validation for individual products taking an additional six–12 months.
Developing a skilled workforce could take up to a decade, making it unlikely that such efforts would bear fruit within a single US presidential term. Even if Trump serves another four years, it is improbable that these changes could materialise before a new administration potentially alters the course.
In response to these uncertainties, the Irish pharmaceutical sector must focus on building resilience. Companies are strengthening supply chain agility, diversifying export markets and investing in localised production capabilities.
Experts have warned that moving pharma operations back to the US is costly and would take years to scale. For example, Eli Lilly announced $27 billion in US investment, but many companies are hesitant to follow due to the industry’s deep reliance on global supply chains and existing FDA-compliant facilities.
Tariffs could also lead to disruptions in the supply of medicines, delays in essential treatments, and even drug shortages. The uncertainty may deter pharmaceutical R&D investments in Ireland, potentially slowing medical innovation. Pharmaceutical firms in the EU have warned of a “risk of exodus” if tariffs continue.
These disruptions highlight the importance of having well-trained professionals to navigate such complex supply chain challenges. Each of the programmes we run in this area includes dedicated modules in supply chain resilience and simulation, preparing students to manage risks, design resilient systems and understand global trade dynamics.
At the time of publishing, President Trump has appeared to back-track somewhat and pause some tariffs. However, if they progress, particularly targeting the pharmaceutical sectors, Trump’s tariff policy could have far-reaching effects on Ireland’s economy, as well as food.
The interdependence between Irish exports and US markets makes strategic planning and adaptation essential. At the same time, these developments highlight the growing importance of logistics and supply chain education in preparing future leaders to manage global disruptions with resilience and innovation.
Written by Dr Kevin Byrne, Dr Chao Ji-Hyland and Dr Nikolaos Valantasis Kanellos of the Research Centre for Sustainable Technology and Digital Innovation at TU Dublin. The School of Business Technology, Retail, and Supply chain at TU Dublin offers programmes across the full spectrum of the Irish National Framework (NFQ) including a Level 6 Logistics Associate Apprenticeship, a Level 8 BSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, a Level 9 MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, and opportunities for doctoral research at Level 10.
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The media obsession with Trumps tariffs are being used as a distraction from the real issues facing Ireland.
Trumps tariffs are hilarious because when you look at the reality, majority of anything that’s important is being made exempt from them. All for show.
Up yours USA. We have Barry’s tea, spuds and a good mass every Sunday.
@Dan The Man: Made me laugh, interesting fact, there are over twice as many Protestants than Catholics in the USA.
Trump makes Homer Simpson look like an economic genius and the only thing Trump will be remembered for when he is gone,
is that he was the guy who destroyed America
@Chaotic State: It’s great to see the great turnaround with new people concerned about the US.
Imagine the plan that US and Europe would have to beg Russia and China for steel to make weapons to defend themselves against them. The woke left had everyone fooled until Trump woke them up.
President Trump is playing a blinder, the man is a genius
@Exhausted Jim: not when McDonald’s is too expensive to afford
@Lance Taylor: buy a chip pan ffs
@Exhausted Jim: Very knowledgeable, you must have one yourself.
@Exhausted Jim: whatever you say Buster multi account
always said we should be looking to be self sufficient….now charges for this and that looms over….this should be an eye opener for everyone that we can’t rely on the world to supply us we should be looking after ourselves first instead of being raped for tarrifs
@kaidon sharkey: so what you are saying is you want Ireland to do what the US is doing? There is logic to it……
@Oh Mammy: how did the world survive before we started trading? we shouldnt be allowed to be bullied into tariffs…we should be looking at ways to be self sufficient not reliant on other countries to supply us…and then when we are self sufficient we dont need anyone else ;)
@kaidon sharkey: self sufficiency isn’t a good long term strategy, even for massive countries like the US or China, never mind the likes of us. The law of comparative advantage dictates that an economy should strive to produce goods/services with the lowest opportunity costs and then trade for whatever else it needs. This approach minimises opportunity costs everywhere which makes everyone wealthier. That said, I do favour restrictions on economies whose primary comparative advantages are based mainly on worse labour conditions as that can result in a race to the bottom in labour conditions, so it can be hard to get the balance right.
@kaidon sharkey: why are there any tariffs?
@Oh Mammy: you dont need me to explain why they are tarrifs…just need to know that we cant be bullied into extortion for stuff and that we have to look at ways that we can strive with out any countries taxing us for stuff when we could look at ways to produce it ourselves
@kaidon sharkey: another country tariffing what we produce isn’t “taxing us for stuff”, it’s taxing foreign people who buy Irish produce. That’s done to make what we produce less attractive to foreign consumers relative to their domestic producers of substitute products. There are indirect costs to Irish consumers from this approach, but no costs to Irish consumers in the form of taxation.
@George Bowling: it is taxing….its you want your stuff here we are charging you x for it thats what tarrifs boils down to taxes on exports into another country
@kaidon sharkey: okay, so our exports are taxed by another country. How would self-sufficiency have any impact whatsoever on that?
@George Bowling: its simple….like i said before how did the world survive before we started to trade? before we knew how many countries was around us? if we can grow our own food which we can we had a sugar industry…we had a gas pipe line which was all sold off…we had turf we are lucky to be on an island surrendered by water loads of wind we could of nutured all the natural stuff we have and learn to grow but instead we sold everything and depend on internationals….with out them this country is goosed once they pull out everyone will be blaming trump…but in reality its the countless governments who begged for them and never gave a once thought of a day like trump
@kaidon sharkey: the world survived before we started to trade by living in forests and dying young from preventable diseases. But that’s beside the point – how would any of what you’re saying be affected by the existence or non existence of tariffs?
@George Bowling: are you for real or what? tariffs is a tax…you want your imports here pay me….my whole point is we shouldnt be looking to export its only going to make the people who produce these products richer and the tarrifs are put on to the tax payer…who are the normal joe soaps who help manufacture these products and at the end of the day get raped on pay and taxes…where we should be looking at ways we could manufacture stuff here where there be no threats and tarrifs and we could give a big f u to anyone who threatens with these tarrifs cause at the end of the day its the normal joe soap who suffers not the rich people who benefits from it
@kaidon sharkey: for example if weed was legal…it would still be illegal to grow and sell but all the shops and grow houses would all be gov owned all the money would be pumped back into the system…and there is some amount of money to be made from it where it benefits the people of this country not for the select few and helps us grow where we could invest in better hospitals and what not instead of worrying what taxes some country is going to put on us for butter or what not
@kaidon sharkey: that’s not how tariffs work. Have you never gotten a customs bill when ordering something online? That’s a tariff, the importer pays it, not the exporter. And you understand your version of the ideal society would see the biblical days as too advanced? You want a return to subsistence farming, and not even the good ol’ days of subsistence farming of the 1840s. We’d be supplementing our “incomes” with a spot of hunter gathering.
@kaidon sharkey: invest in hospitals? That’s great that we’ll still have hospitals. All we need to do now is figure out how to develop every single piece of technology and every medicine developed anywhere on earth in order to maintain this self sufficiency dream and we might even have hospitals that function to a degree. Not sure how much time that will leave us for subsistence farming and hunter gathering though – would food still be essential in this utopian vision of yours?
@George Bowling: people like you have a feeble mind that doesnt go far…you think you need the world to supply you but in reality u dont need anything…you are afraid to think outside the box because orange man bad…the world will still go on after us…and well before us…ive thrown up answers and you cant answer or throw a reasonable answer but try and bring me down…not happening honey
@kaidon sharkey: returning to pre-biblical times is not “thinking outside the box”. And we do need things – like the things we need for hospitals so people don’t die of the common cold every year. Or things like cars, technology, fertiliser is a big one too if we don’t want to lose about half our population to starvation in year one of this retаrded scheme. And you want all of this just because you don’t understand how tariffs work. Genuinely retаrded
@George Bowling: the tarrifs bit i know the importer pays it thats why trump has the tarrifs its a tax on letting products into the country for them to sell…
@George Bowling: we advance as a human species…can we not advance without the need from outside influences? that we ourselves as irisg people cannot advance without the help of outside influences
@kaidon sharkey: irish
@George Bowling: how we going to starve?
@kaidon sharkey: no, we can’t. I already explained the law of comparative advantage above. You know what modern country attempts (but still fails, obviously) self sufficiency? North Korea, self sufficiency is one of the tenets of Juche. Is that what you want to advance towards, Pyongyang?
@George Bowling: you are out of your mind…all i talked about was ways to becoming self sufficient so we wont have to deal with tarrifs and you are now going on as if i want a north korea? im far from it lad
@kaidon sharkey: “all I said was we should be self-sufficient and you’re saying I want us to be like the only other country on earth that even attempts self-sufficiency”
Yes. Ffs!
@George Bowling: your just guesing…i never said a state like n korea….i just went on about self sufficiency that we should be looking into so we dont be ever pulled into a tarrif war thats whats happening now
@kaidon sharkey: no, I’m not guessing, I’m referring to the only country on earth stupid enough to attempt what you want us to attempt. And you didn’t even understand what a tariff was a few minutes ago ffs, and I quote “tariffs is a tax…you want your imports here pay me”, and now you’re offering noticeably Juche like solutions to these problems you don’t even understand.
@George Bowling: tarriffs is a tax…you may not understand it is but it is….you want to sell your product in this country you are going to pay a tarriff which in itself is a tax and a price the producer will have to pay and will pass on to the consumer with higher prices in the country of origin just to make up the margin…its unjust but its the way it is…thats y i say we should be looking into ways we could be self sufficient…so we dont have to face it…we produce and make enough to feed and make the citizens of this country lives better and have a valuable source of income and have a return that we dont need tarrifs on exports im all for it
@kaidon sharkey: “you want to sell your product in this country you are going to pay a tarriff” No, that’s wrong. The importer pays a tariff, a foreign government cannot levy taxes on domestic companies, obviously. But anyway, because foreign importers will have to pay import taxes (that name might make it easier for you to understand than tariffs) and this will reduce the demand in other countries for what we produce, we should just stop exporting entirely? Does any part of that seem even the tiniest bit sensible to you, honestly?
@George Bowling: the importer is the seller…you want to reach a bigger market you have to pay a tariff….hence the tax….if you as a company want to sell to a bigger market by all means go…the irish people shouldnt have to suffer because of this war…hence why i said we should be looking at ways to be self sufficient…where we as a country would be alright if a company wants to sell their produce abroad they should go at it alone…and not want anything in the countries destenation in return hence the multinationals thats here….
@kaidon sharkey: Were you home schooled by a pigeon?
@kaidon sharkey: the irony of your comment……
@kaidon sharkey: like north Korea is it ???
@kaidon sharkey: people have traded since the dawn of civilization.
You tit
@kaidon sharkey: you do know we are part of the EU???
550 million customers if we include the UK .
No tariffs on import /export.
And here’s you talking about TURF
Wtf are you thinking,
Scarlet for ye
Impact of trump tariffs is that Americans will have to pay whatever percentage he imposed ok the tariffs
@Housing Hunger Games: or not buy stuff, which is what he wants. He will have achieved his aim when Japan, China and others start selling US Bonds. That will crash the dollar, effectively reducing US debt repayments. But also making it impossible for US to borrow more. That will hit us all, badly.
I hope Israel win the Eurovision
@Exhausted Jim: You don’t though, troll. You couldn’t care less about the Eurovision.
Is there a Chinese state link to the eminent co-author of this article? Seems a bit of a conflict to have someone from China inform the Iriah what Trump tariffs might impact
I think Trump is becoming the biggest comedy show of all time and the second biggest and not far behind are the Irish waste of space dregs of society on here spouting that he’s a genius.
Comments closed on the Irish family living in a shed for years, I think the parasites should give the new house to a fugee with 3 kids and give him 500 yoyos a WEEK , like the rest of them
@blueberry kush: Or to an dishonest, uninformed bigot.
COVID shown up the problem with the supply chain before Trumps tariffs came into being. Headlines in today’s papers that the EU may tax the Tech companies mainly based in Ireland which FG Paschal is in favour of.
Time to stock up on all things American like bourbon Coca Cola and fries etc. prices will explode
Well I certainly Won’t be buying any American goods during this Nonsense! ROFLMAO!!!
Facthna Roe and his multiple bigoted accounts, what a loser lol
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