EU-US trade deal represents ‘substantial burden' for Irish businesses
The final terms of the deal were worked out during a meeting between European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Donald Trump at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland on Sunday.
The deal will lock in tariffs of 15 per cent on most EU imports to the US, but prevent the prospect of an economically devastating trade war.
Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy said the agreement 'brings an end to a significant amount of uncertainty' for some businesses. However, he added that a 15 per cent tariff 'still represents a substantial burden for many industries'.
READ MORE
'Sectors which rely heavily on the US market and operate within small margins, will once again be significantly impacted by an additional 5 per cent tariff, on top of what they have already had to absorb over the past several months and well in excess of the 1 per cent effective tariff which existing before April,' he said.
'Our message to the Government, as it was with the 10 per cent tariff, is that the most exposed sectors will require support similar to the interventions provided as a response to Brexit.'
Mr McCoy noted the finer details of the deal are still emerging. 'These details will be critically important for Ireland,' he added.
The European Commission, which is responsible for trade policy, had been scrambling to secure an agreement before an August 1st deadline. Mr Trump had threatened to triple import levies on nearly all trade coming from the EU if a deal was not done by then.
Speaking after the negotiations ended, Ms von der Leyen said the US had agreed to cap any future tariffs on pharmaceutical products at that rate.
Chambers Ireland chief executive Ian Talbot said certainty is 'critical for businesses' and that the impact of uncertainty over the past couple of months has been seen in terms of investment.
'While tariffs are never welcome news for businesses on either side of the Atlantic, reaching an agreement – however imperfect – is preferable to no deal,' he said. 'It at least allows companies to plan and adapt in the short term.
'Any clarity that can be provided – even if preliminary – lays the foundation for further negotiation and incremental progress on the tariffs that now exist.
'Efforts should be made to help businesses to adapt. The EU and Irish Government should work to create a fund to support viable businesses adapt to new tariffs and also to ensure potential arbitrage issues with Northern Ireland are clearly understood and addressed.'
BusinessEurope president Fredrik Persson welcomed the deal, which he said 'prevents a tariff escalation that would be extremely harmful to businesses and consumers on both sides'.
'We still need to examine the details and hope that a solution is soon found for important sectors that appear to be excluded from the deal,' he said.
'This will be critical to bringing the relationship to a more stable ground. Certainty and predictability are key for companies to invest and generate additional value on both sides of the Atlantic.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Manchester United's ‘Wembley of the North' stadium plan facing delays over land deal
Manchester United's plans to build a 100,000-seat stadium next to Old Trafford are facing delays due to a standoff over the price of land needed to begin work on the construction of the proposed ground Sir Jim Ratcliffe has called 'the Wembley of the North'. The club want land used as a rail freight terminal to complete the Old Trafford Regeneration Project, which they claim will bring £7.3bn a year to the UK economy. United have held talks with Freightliner, the haulage company that owns and operates the terminal, about buying the land, but negotiations are deadlocked due to a disagreement over the price. While Freightliner is understood to have expressed a willingness to relocate from Trafford Park to nearby St Helens, the company is seeking around £400m for the land, with United valuing it at between £40m and £50m. Ratcliffe has made it clear United are unwilling to accept the asking price set by Freightliner's parent company, Brookfield, and initial discussions are believed to have reached an impasse. A source said Freightliner 'have United over a barrel'. The company is willing to relocate to a proposed new site that would offer increased capacity for trains, but it is in no rush to move. The club's view is that Freightliner will only receive what would be a significant windfall if they are willing to drop the asking price. When unveiling designs for the Old Trafford master plan, produced by Foster + Partners, in March, Ratcliffe set an ambitious target of completing what he described as a five-year build by 2030. United had been hoping to begin preparatory building work by the end of this year, but failing to secure the Freightliner site will delay the start date. United's options at this stage would be to increase their offer, wait for Freightliner to lower its demands, or scale back the project so that the freight terminal land is not required. It is also possible the new Old Trafford Mayoral Development Corporation, chaired by Sebastian Coe, could issue a compulsory purchase order, although that would be subject to legal challenges and would lead to further delays. Completion by 2030 was always seen as an ambitious target outside the senior leadership team at Old Trafford, given United have yet to obtain planning permission, secure ownership of all the land required or formally appoint architects. While Foster + Partners produced the artist impressions and videos of the proposed new stadium, the club plan to run a formal tender process to appoint architects. At a Fans Forum event on 30 June, United conceded that securing the land required could prove an obstacle to beginning work this year. United were asked by supporters whether building would commence in 2025 or 2026 and responded: 'Planning work is continuing, including the consultations with fans discussed during today's meeting. 'Discussions are also ongoing with local authorities, land owners and potential funding partners with a view to securing the land and the finance we need to proceed with the project. It remains our ambition to proceed with the project as quickly as possible, but we can only do this once the necessary land and funding is in place.' United have estimated the cost of the project at £4.2bn, but claim it will bring huge social and economic benefits to the local community and wider region, including 92,000 jobs, more than 17,000 new homes as well as attracting an extra 1.8 million visitors annually. The cost for the stadium has been projected by United to be around £2bn, although given the tented roof alone is likely to cost £300m, industry sources say £3bn is a more realistic budget. Freightliner's demands for £400m could result in the redevelopment being significantly over budget from the start. United are not seeking any public money to build the stadium itself. The club declined to comment on a private commercial negotiation. The Guardian
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
US-Iran tensions likely to intensify after rights groups confirm four hostages held by Tehran
Iran has, for decades, used what critics call hostage diplomacy, a policy of detaining foreigners and dual nationals to leverage them for prisoner swaps and the release of frozen funds. After the 12-day war with Israel and the United States , Iran is once again targeting Americans. At least four Iranian Americans — two men and two women — are in Iranian custody, according to human rights groups, lawyers and Hostage Aid Worldwide, a non-profit organisation that was founded by former hostages to aid families and that is in touch with the current detainees' friends and families. Three of the Americans are in jail, and one has been barred from leaving the country, they said. The detentions are likely to increase the tense political climate between Tehran and Washington after the United States joined Israel's attack on Iran and bombarded and severely damaged three of its nuclear sites in June. Nuclear negotiations with Washington have not resumed since the war in June, but Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said this past week in an interview with local news media that he and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, have been communicating directly through text messages. US president Donald Trump has said that he would not tolerate countries' wrongful detention of Americans and that their release is a top priority for his administration. Mr Witkoff's office did not respond to a question on whether the detention of dual American citizens was brought up in communications with Mr Araghchi. The US state department has said that it is 'closely tracking' reports of Americans being detained in Iran. 'For privacy, safety and operational reasons, we do not get into the details of our internal or diplomatic discussions on reported US detainees,' it said in a statement Monday. 'We call on Iran to immediately release all unjustly detained individuals in Iran.' Iran's mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the detentions. Iran's ministry of intelligence said in a statement on Monday that it had arrested at least 20 people who were working as spies or operatives for Israel in cities across Iran. The four detained Iranian Americans had all lived in the US and had travelled to Iran to visit family, according to the rights groups. The families of three of the Americans have asked that their names not be published for fear it could make their situations worse. Two of the four were arrested by security agents in the immediate aftermath of Israel's attacks on Iran in June, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and Hengaw, an independent rights groups based outside Iran. One is a 70-year-old Jewish father and grandfather from New York who has a jewellery business. He is being questioned about a trip to Israel, according to the rights groups and the man's colleagues and friends. The other is a woman from California who was held in the notorious Evin prison. But her whereabouts is now unclear after Israel attacked Evin in June and the prison was evacuated, according to rights groups and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian British scholar who was imprisoned in Iran for two years and released in 2020. Iran is also holding another Iranian American woman, who was first imprisoned and prevented from leaving the country in December 2024. She is currently out of prison, but her Iranian and American passports were confiscated, according to her US-based lawyer who asked not to be named to discuss sensitive information. The woman works for a US technology company and runs a charity for underprivileged children in Iran. But after the recent war, the Iranian judiciary elevated her case and charged her with espionage, according to her lawyer – a serious crime that can carry many years in prison and even the death penalty. At least one other Iranian American citizen, journalist Reza Valizadeh, is imprisoned in Iran. He is a former employee of Radio Farda, the Persian-language news outlet that is part of the State Department-funded Radio Free Europe. Radio Farda has said in a statement that he was arrested in October 2024 while visiting family in Iran. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of 'collaborating with a hostile government.' Two senior Iranian officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorised to speak publicly confirmed that Iran had recently detained two dual American citizens – the New York man and the California woman. They said it was part of a wider crackdown focused on finding a network of operatives linked to Israel and United States. The crackdown comes as Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian has encouraged Iranians in the diaspora to return to Iran. He said recently that he would speak with the ministries of intelligence and judiciary to facilitate those returns, according to local news reports. Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, which was heavily damaged by Israeli missiles in June. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times Smoke fills the sky in Tehran, Iran, following Israeli airstrikes in June. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times 'We have to create a framework so that Iranians living abroad can come to Iran without fear,' Mr Pezeshkian said. But Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group, said recently: 'The Iranian government has a sordid history of cracking down domestically following intelligence failures and seizing foreign nationals as a cynical form of leverage. And at a time when Tehran and the Trump administration are already at loggerheads over nuclear diplomacy, the arrests could add another significant area of contention.' The US state department issued a new warning after the war, telling Americans not to travel to Iran 'under any circumstances'. In a statement in English and Persian, it says that Americans, including Iranian Americans, 'have been wrongfully detained – taken hostage – by the Iranian government for months, and years. The threat of detention is even greater today.' The news of the Americans' detentions has rattled the Iranian American community, including several people previously detained in Iran. Many of them are often the first point of contact for families who find themselves navigating the frightening ordeal of having a loved one arrested in Iran. Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American businessperson who was held for eight years in Iran before being released as part of a US-Iran deal in 2023, said that since the war with Israel, the number of Americans detained in Iran has grown. 'Some cases are public; others remain under wraps, often due to poor advice that silence is safer,' he said. 'Securing their release must be a core US priority in any future diplomatic engagement with Tehran,' added Namazi, who is on the board of Hostage Aid Worldwide. In New York's tight-knit Jewish Iranian circles, news of one member's detention spread quickly and brought anxiety. Iran has arrested at least five Jewish Iranians in its postwar crackdown and has summoned 35 more for questioning, according to Skylar Thompson, deputy director of HRANA. 2025 The New York Times Company
The Irish Sun
12 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Man Utd able to buy Benjamin Sesko NOW without player sales thanks to Marcus Rashford's Barcelona loan transfer
MARCUS RASHFORD has helped give Manchester United the financial wriggle room to land top target Benjamin Sesko - without selling ANYBODY else before the summer window closes. Advertisement 4 Marcus Rashford joined Barcelona on loan Credit: Alamy 4 It could help in Man Utd's pursuit of Benjamin Sesko Credit: Getty Newcastle also made the first move - Contact has continued since and is likely to be stepped up once United return home from the final game of the Premier League Summer Series against Everton in Atlanta in a bid to see off Newcastle's interest. And their determination to land Sesko, 22, has been sharpened by the financial benefits of Rashford's loan move to Barcelona. Advertisement The Catalan club agreed to take on Rashford's £16m annual wage bill, an agreement which made a significant dent in United's debit sheet. United also raised £20.7m from sell-on clauses including Anthony Elanga's move to Newcastle and the £5m paid by Chelsea to pull out of their deal to sign Jadon Sancho. And successful negotiations with Wolves and Brentford respectively as part of the signings of Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo have also helped. Rather than paying the bulk of the £130m total fees up front, United agreed to pay in multiple instalments, spreading the cost. Advertisement Most read in Football And with Newcastle fearing Sesko, 22, has already decided that United are the club for him, the way seems clear for Ruben Amorim to land his man. 4 CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS That will, though, require ongoing discussions with the Bundesliga club, who are determined to get their asking price. Advertisement Not qualifying for Europe this season means United do not have to stick to Uefa's limit of spending no more than 70 per cent of their annual income on transfers and wages. Amorim refuses to guarantee Hojlund Man Utd future amid Sesko transfer push But while the club does still have PSR issues to juggle with, they have eased slightly after the controversial club cuts programme ordered by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos. Nevertheless, the huge transfer fees paid over recent seasons have lumbered the club with significant 'amortisation' costs that are still being carried. It means that, if Sesko joins Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha in a £200m-plus attacking trident, sales will have to be made before the end of the financial year on June 30. Advertisement 4 Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha joined United this summer Credit: Getty
