As the EU braces itself for the first round US tariffs, due on Wednesday, new figures show the bloc recorded a surplus in traded goods with the US last year of close to €200 billion.
A big element of this trade flow came from Ireland, which exported €72.6 billion worth of merchandise, mainly pharma, to the US last year, reflecting the large number of US pharma companies operating in the State and Ireland’s unique vulnerability to the brewing transatlantic trade war.
Washington is due to impose tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and aluminum imports by this Wednesday. Brussels has indicated it will hit back with retaliatory tariffs of its own.
EU trade commissioner Maroš Sefcovic claimed this week the US side did “not seem to be engaging to make a deal” to avoid a tariff war.
“We jointly identified the few areas that would allow us to move forward by fostering a mutual benefit. But in the end, one hand cannot clap,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Ahead of possible tit-for-tat measures, Eurostat has published figures showing the EU exported €531.6 billion in goods to the US in 2024 and imported €333.4 billion, resulting in a €198.2 billion trade surplus.
The biggest element of the EU’s export with the US were medicinal and pharmaceutical products, which accounted for 22.5 per cent.
Car exports accounted for 9.6 per cent of EU exports to the US.
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Taoiseach Micheál Martin is expected to emphasise the two-way flow of trade and invetment between Ireland and the US when he meets US president Donald Trump in the White House on Wednesday amid concern that Mr Trump will focus on the US goods trade deficit with Ireland.
The world’s 10 largest drugmakers, including Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer and Merck, have large plants in Ireland.
The CSO figures indicated the deficit was a record €50 billion last year. Using a different measure, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis put it at $87 billion, ahead of Canada and Germany and behind only Vietnam, Mexico and China.
The US has a large surplus in services trade with Ireland, as with the EU as a whole.
Mr Trump has threatened a 25 per cent tariff on pharmaceutical imports and on goods from the EU, both of which would catch Ireland in its crosshairs. He also made an election pledge to slash the US corporate tax rate, which could prove more damaging to Ireland.
Mr Turmp roiled markets again on Tuesday by doubling his planned tariff on all steel and aluminum products coming into the US from Canada, bringing the total to 50 per cent, in response to the province of Ontario placing a 25 per cent tariff on electricity coming into the US.
The US president said he would also “substantially increase” other tariffs on Canada on April 2nd if the country does not drop tariffs on dairy products and other US goods.
The threats come after Trump’s on-again, off-again trade policies have sent measures of consumer and business sentiment sliding amid growing anxiety the US economy will slow, if not fall into a recession.
Additional reporting by Reuters/Bloomberg
