'10% tariffs is not a good answer'
President Trump said the US is close to finalising several trade pacts in the coming days.
In a posting on his Truth Social website, he said the US would start delivering tariff letters later today.
An EU-US deal is yet to be agreed, Irish businesses are still in the dark about what tariffs will be imposed, or what reciprocal tariffs might be implemented.
Speaking on the This Week programme yesterday, the Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said the "best case" scenario in the EU-US trade talks is that a political framework can be delivered on Tuesday evening.
While last week the Tanaiste Simon Harris said US tariffs of 10% will be the "new normal".
A 10% baseline that could be structured around a framework deal would not be unprecedented.
The US has already agreed on a framework for trade discussions with both the UK and China.
This type of mechanism could bring the US and EU to the table and create a little bit of certainty for businesses going forward.
However, for businesses more broadly, PwC Global Trade and Customs Partner John O'Loughlin highlights that "10% is not a good answer."
"A framework deal where we have 10% really puts certainty around that 10%, where I think businesses have been hoping that 10% may have been somewhat of a stopgap ultimately going down to 0%, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen," said Mr O'Loughlin.
"And even if we see carve outs, they can kind of go one of two ways; carve outs can be something that looks towards 0% like we've had with pharma semiconductors since Liberation Day, but I would be fearful that we could have carve outs that have put a rate of duty somewhat higher than 10%.
"So the carve outs here don't necessarily move towards 0%, a carve out for certain sectors could potentially mean a rate higher than 10%."
Irish businesses that do not trade directly with the US are also likely to be impacted by the wider supply chain impact.
While the main focus may be on Irish exporters and importers buying and selling to and from the US, many Irish companies trade globally.
Big sectors and private businesses will be managing supply chains.
"The Liberation Day tariffs didn't focus on the EU, they focused on every country globally," said Mr O'Loughlin.
"We'll be watching over the next couple of days to see what the rates are, obviously for the European Union, but what the impact is for the wider global supply chain, particularly companies that are managing supply chains from Ireland, where products never physically come here or come to the European Union," he said.
"This is a global issue and certainly companies need to be looking at that issue through that lens over the next couple of days," he added.
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