The United States has overtaken Britain as the Republic's most important trading partner, thanks in part to the impotency drug Viagra, figures due out next week are expected to confirm.
Exports to the United States in the eight months to August topped £8 billion (€10 billion), an increase of 60 per cent on the previous year, according to data on trade with non-EU countries released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office.
The weakness of the euro relative to the dollar has also helped exports.
Information on exports to EU countries will not be released until next week. It is expected to show that for the first time since trading records were kept, Britain is not the biggest buyer of Irish goods. The most recent data for Irish exports to Britain show that they are increasing at a rate of only 25 per cent a year.
Exports to Britain in the first eight months of last year were £6.3 billion and assuming a 25 per cent increase are expected to be less than £8 billion for the eight months to August.
The biggest increase in exports to non-EU countries including the US was in the organic chemicals sector. Such exports rose from £2.5 billion in the first eight months of last year to £5.4 billion in the same period this year. The shipping to the US of product from the Pfizer plant in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, used to make impotency drug Viagra, accounts for a significant portion of organic chemicals exports.
There has also been a significant increase in exports of "office machines and automatic data processing machines" which includes personal computers made in Ireland by Gateway and Dell. They rose from £2 billion last year to £2.8 billion this year. Imports from the United States rose by only 18 per cent year on year in the period under review. This has further widened the trade gap between the two countries. Imports from the US were £4.5 billion.
The figures released yesterday showed a substantial increase in exports to Japan from £940 million to £1.5 billion, a gain of 63 per cent. Overall exports to non-EU countries grew by 42 per cent to £16.1 billion while imports were up by only 24 per cent to £10.7 billion, meaning that Ireland retains a healthy trade surplus with non-EU nations of £5.42 billion.
