Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris discussed trade issues on Monday with the new US ambassador to Dublin, Ed Walsh, following President Donald Trump’s threat at the weekend to impose 30 per cent tariffs on EU exports to the US.
At the scheduled meeting, Mr Harris told the ambassador that he believed there was a “landing zone” for an agreement between the two sides that would avoid the threatened tariffs on August 1st.
Mr Harris also outlined Ireland’s concerns for the pharmaceutical sector, which is the subject of an investigation by the US authorities that could lead to further trade measures by Washington. Mr Harris explained how this was a “significant concern for Ireland”, officials said.
The two men also discussed the situation in the Middle East and the need for a ceasefire. When the Occupied Territories Bill was raised by the ambassador, the Tánaiste explained the process that the Bill is going through, officials said.
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The Bill, and the Irish Government’s wider response to the situation in Gaza, has been the subject of significant criticism in Washington. The previous US ambassador, Claire Cronin, made representations to Dublin about the Bill, which would ban – as currently drafted – the import of goods produced in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Pro-Israeli organisations have been lobbying against the Bill in Washington, with an analysis supplied by one group to the Irish Government claiming it would affect US companies operating in Ireland.
Commenting on the Bill recently, the US senator Jim Risch, who is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it showed Ireland was on a “hateful, anti-Semitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering”.
Mr Harris and Mr Walsh also discussed in Ukraine, Northern Ireland, Ireland’s J1 visa programme and the upcoming college (American) football and NFL games taking place in Ireland later this year, officials said.
