Paddy Malone from the Dundak Chamber of Commerce has urged local businesses to keep calm and not panic following last week’s announcement by the President of America, Donald Trump that he was putting a blanket 20% tariff on most EU exports.
The EU has not yet announced how they are going to respond to those tariffs but according to Dundalk Chamber of Commerce member Paddy Malone, business owners must keep a cool head and wait to see what the EU’s response will be.
“This is just the opening salvo,” stated paddy. “We need to calm down and wait for a measured response from Brussells. Trump has shown that he doesn’t know what V.A.T is by quoting a figure of 39% which he says that the E.U are charging the U.S in tariffs.
“The last thing we want from here is a trade war as that will hit us hard with the whiskey and dairy industries in particular danger should this escalate. From a local point of view we have to make sure that the pharma industry is protected. So far it has been declared exempt from tariffs but we need to be ready in case that changes anytime soon,” explained Paddy.
Things can change quickly and we know that only too well even from politics in this country. Jack Lynch won in a landslide in 1977 and was hugely popular but three years later he was gone. We need to work with the E.U rather than stand alone by ourselves and we have to hope that sanity prevails. The performance of the markets since Trump’s announcement will hopefully make him stop and think that maybe he doesn’t have a clear enough strategy to see this through.
“We have proved resilient in the past in relation to Brexit and the Windsor Agreement that came out of hat is working well at present. Dundalk and Newry are doing more business with each other than ever so that is positive. As I said already now is a time for cool heads and lets wait to see what move the E.U will make next before deciding on what our strategy going forward will be,” concluded Paddy.
