EU should ‘be careful’ in tariff talks with US – Chambers
Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has said that the European Union needs “to be careful about what we put on the table” in tariff negotiations with the United States.
Speaking RTÉ’s This Week, Mr Chambers said lowering tariffs between countries has been the basis of prosperity built over decades.
“We want to preserve the extent of the interdependence that exists between Ireland the US,” he said.
The Minister’s comments follow US President Donald Trump’s pausing his tariffs on dozens of countries – including Ireland – on Wednesday for 90 days to allow time for officials to negotiate with countries that have sought to reduce them.
Despite the reprieve, a 10% blanket duty on almost all imports remains in place.
Meanwhile, the tariffs imposed on China by Mr Trump were not paused and were hiked to 145%.
Mr Chambers said while it was impossible to predict what will happen with tariffs in general – or pharmaceuticals in particular – the Government’s hope is there will not be additional tariffs announced on pharma sector.
He warned that “we are at a point of enormous damage not just to the Irish economy but to the EU economy” if tariffs are raised.
Separate tariffs on smartphones and chips – Lutnick
The US Commerce Secretary has said that smartphones, computers and some other electronics will come under separate tariffs, along with semiconductors that may be imposed in a month or so.
“We can’t be relying on China for fundamental things that we need: our medicines and our semiconductors need to be built in America,” Howard Lutnick told ABC News.
On Friday, the Trump administration granted exclusions from steep tariffs on such products, imported largely from China, providing a big break to tech firms like Apple that rely on imported products.
China said it was evaluating the impact of the exclusions.
In a statement, the Ministry of Commerce called the move a “small step by US to correct its wrong practice of unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs’”.
“The bell on a tiger’s neck can only be untied by the person who tied it,” the ministry said, urging the US to make a major step in correcting what it called its wrongdoing and cancelling the tariffs completely.
Article Source – EU should ‘be careful’ in tariff talks with US – Chambers – RTE