US election: The relationship between the EU and the US is about to change dramatically
US election: President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a West Palm Beach, Florida, event as he heads for electoral victory. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
So this morning, over strong coffees, political leaders in Dublin and all over Europe are turning to their officials and asking: what now? What does this mean for us? Trump has been categoric about his intentions to slap tariffs on EU imports. “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, don’t take anything. You have a $312 billion deficit with the EU. You know, the EU is a mini – but not so mini – is a mini China,” Trump has said.
For Ireland, the EU member state with the closest relationship with the US and with American multinational companies making up a huge part of its economy, the concerns are acute. But trade is an EU competence; policy will be made in Brussels, not Dublin, with the interests of the EU’s economy as a whole uppermost – not the unusual Irish economic model.
A wholesale exodus of US companies seems far-fetched, though. Many will still require a base of the EU, and in any case, a Trump presidency, however bad it is for Irish interests, can only last four years. Multinational companies think on longer horizons than that. But the challenges to the status quo in Ireland’s economic model seem obvious.
Then-taoiseach Enda Kenny managed to walk the tightrope with some skill when Trump was previously president, cosying up in the White House with maximum tooraloora but still making a powerful speech in defence of immigrants, citing the example of Ireland’s most celebrated immigrant, St Patrick. Varadkar joshed with Trump about fixing a planning permission.
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