US/EU trade talks go down to the wire

Now we get to see how iron clad the EU's deal was. 15% cap was part of that deal. I don't know what is happening regarding the EU here but obviously Ireland is the most exposed. Serious concerns in govt buildings I can well imagine. If imposed on the EU the deal is broken.

https://www.rte.ie/news/us/2025/0926/1535412-trump-tariff-pharmaceutical/

There would have to be a reality check with the budget because the arse is going to fall out of our corporation tax receipts at some point and then we are going to be in a very bad situation. This move by Trump would bring that closer.

Part of the reason we are so exposed here is that the government has increased current spending on the back of windfall corporate reciepts. If you exclude those reciepts the country would have a €12bn deficit next year according to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council who are blue in the face warning the government about dangerous spending increases.

So Trump's tariff policies matter more to us than any other country in Europe.

The EU trumpeted it's deal with Trump. Let's see if it's going to be upheld.

No I will not waste my time explaining anything to you. If you need it explained you can sign up for some rudimentary economics course somewhere or just read the latest ESRI report from last week or any of the IFAC releases in the last 12 months.

The windfall taxes can and will go to zero at some point. The core reciepts should remain. It's the windfall element that is really concerning because of the government's spending increases. That will put the state in to a very large deficit as things stand. The government has been getting a barrage of warnings including from the Central Bank that the scale of it's spending increases puts the state at risk.

It's kind of a separate issue but it is still intricately connected with Trump's tariff policies.

The US and Britain have agreed a zero tariff pharmaceutical deal. Britain becomes the only country in the world with zero tariffs on pharma with the US.

The UK will pay an extra 25% on US medicines by 2035 in return.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/landmark-uk-us-pharmaceuticals-deal-to-safeguard-medicines-access-and-drive-vital-investmentfor-uk-patients-and-businesses

Obviously this puts Ireland and other EU countries like the Netherlands at a competitive disadvantage for investment. The extent of the issues this will cause for the industry here remains to be seen. It's not easy to move those operations and it takes a long time. It could certainly lead to new investments going to Britain instead which would be visible much quicker.

The Irish government needs to consider it's own incentives to counter these hits to competitiveness whether that's tax exemptions, R&D support or the rate of corporation tax among other things.

I don't know if the EU itself is trying to be more ambitious than the 15% tariff cap or not but I don't think the government can afford to wait this out for a protracted period of time.

A complete misread.

It has nothing to do with what the NHS will pay. That is a total irrelevance to us. What is super relevant to us is investment and the money the government makes from pharma companies shipping product back to the United States.

The hit to Ireland is in the very first line of your link.

The UK and the US have agreed a deal to keep tariffs on UK pharmaceutical shipments into America at zero.

The pharma industry is enormously important to the Irish economy and the exchequer. Having a country of 66 million people next to you that can import in to your biggest market with a zero tariff is not a comfortable position for a small country to be in for an industry you rely on for high quality jobs and income.