Martin Heydon, the minister of agriculture will head a full trade mission to the United States the next week, reports RTE.
It follows threats of more action from US President Donald Trump, who raised taxes on specific EU imports by 20% last night.
After raising tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports from the EU.
As part of the trade mission, Mr. Heydon stated that he would be attending “a number of significant political meetings in the first week in April”.
“The story I’m telling is of Irish food companies who are based in America who employ American people,” he said, adding that 200,000 American people are employed by 770 Irish companies, reports RTE.
“That’s why when I travel to a number of different states, I’ll be highlighting that level of investment that Irish companies make there. I will be using my position to articulate the impact that this could have, particularly in relation to Irish products that could get caught up in this,” reports RTE.
The minister said that after Mr Trump’s moves, there is “a lot of concern” in the agri-food and whisky export industries.
“Very much mutually beneficial” is how he would describe the two nations’ trading relationship, reports RTE.
In an interview with Colm Ó Mongáin on RTÉ’s Saturday, he stated that there was no rationale for imposing tariffs.
He stated that there will be time before the change’s scheduled implementation date of April 1st, after the announcement of the EU’s own tariff response, reports RTE.
He stated that “to keep on going dialogue open” and negotiating were crucial.
Mr. Heydon said that there were “delays” in Mr. Trump’s declaration of tariffs against Canada and Mexico, reports RTE.
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