Tánaiste Simon Harris has said that the events of the past week must act as a “wake up call” for both Ireland and Europe to become more competitive and resilient.
It comes after a week of uncertainty in the trading relationship between the US and the EU, which culminated in US President Donald Trump withdrawing a threat of tariffs against European allies and the UK over his ambitions to annex Greenland – with the US citing a favourable deal with NATO for its decision.
Speaking at Government Buildings after the conclusion of a meeting of the Trade Forum, Mr Harris said that a moment of major economic challenge had thankfully been avoided but he said “we cannot go back to business as usual”.
“It has to be a wake up call. It has to make us be more vigilant, it has to make us prepare better and in a more deep manner,” he said.
He said he had asked officials in the Department of Finance to accelerate scenario planning but he said Europe also must take action.
“We also need to see the European Union really accelerate actions to become more self-reliant.
“Self-reliant when it comes to security, but not just security in the defence sense, but also economic security, digital security and cybersecurity,” he added.
Mr Harris also said that he agreed with the Davos speech of the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney when he said that the old world order had changed.
“The old international norms that we’d all been operating on for a generation and more is certainly tested at best. Therefore we have to prepare – control what we can control, do domestically what we can do, continue to run budget surpluses, invest in infrastructure, make sure this is a good country to invest in.
“And at a European level, push for us not just to be commentators on what happens in White House, but to actually take steps to make Europe more competitive and more resilient,” he said.
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Taoiseach’s White House visit should go ahead, says McEntee
Meanwhile, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said she believes that the Taoiseach’s visit to the White House for St Patrick’s Day should go ahead, describing the US as an important trading partner.
Helen McEntee said that the Taoiseach’s visit to the White House was “an opportunity for access that many countries don’t have” and one that “our European colleagues value and want us to continue”.
Earlier this week, some Opposition parties called for a boycott of the traditional visit.
Minister of State Neale Richmond told the Dáil that nine or ten ministers will visit up to 15 US states around St Patrick’s Day.
Ms McEntee was speaking ahead of the Government Trade Forum, which she chaired.
The forum met for the tenth time since it was established last year and discussed the action plan for market diversification and trade promotion.
Ms McEntee welcomed confirmation that Mr Trump was not going to move forward with increased tariffs on EU goods but said these were “uncertain times”.
She said the EU’s approach in dealing with the threat from the US over Greenland “was the right approach… to engage, to negotiate, to engage in constructive dialogue but to be firm in our beliefs and to be firm in pushing back”.
The minister said that Ireland’s relationship with the US remains “one of our most important relationships” and after the EU it was our most important trading partner.
However, she said that Ireland had to diversify its markets and “control the controllables” and that would be discussed at this morning’s trade forum.
“We’ve developed a market diversification strategy, which was agreed by Government just last year, a new competitiveness strategy as well, and then of course, our trips on St Patrick’s Day will feed into that, and this is with the objective of looking beyond,” she said.
Additional reporting PA
