Donald Trump's pharma tariff threat ‘deeply concerning’ for Cork 

Cork’s Lord Mayor Dan Boyle is to meet with his counterpart in Cork County Council on Monday to discuss what can be done “to show the love” to Cork’s pharmaceutical giants.

It comes in the wake of the latest threat by US president Donald Trump to impose a 25% tariff on pharmaceuticals being exported to the United States.

Mr Boyle was speaking to The Echo following Mr Trump’s Oval Office press conference on Wednesday in which he specifically referenced Ireland’s pharmaceutical industry and suggested that the US would seek to get it back — and in advance of a pre-scheduled meeting on Monday with the Mayor of County Cork Joe Carroll and senior executives of Cork County Council.

Co-ordinated approach

“The city and county councils are meeting on Monday, and that’s one of the things we can be examining, and there would be a logic in having a co-ordinated approach in making sure that the multinational companies in the Cork region feel the love and ongoing support and that we have a strategic approach as to making sure that the level and type of investment continues to be encouraged,” he said.

The Green Party councillor said that his main concern was that US pharma companies with large manufacturing plants here would focus new investment in their home country rather than in countries such as Ireland, which could be subject to US tariffs. 

He also suggested that the US president seemed to be using the threat of tariffs as a means to get terms more favourable to the US in negotiations with trading partners.

Mr Boyle’s response was one of several reactions from Cork politicians to Mr Trump’s latest comments which, if the threats materialise, could have a devastating impact on the Irish pharma industry, which employs almost 30,000 people across the country. 

In Cork, 33 pharma or medical devices companies employ almost 14,000 people in total.

Concern

South Central Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said Mr Trump’s statement would “cause a great deal of concern among the thousands of people working in US multinational companies in Cork and across Ireland, and particularly the pharmaceutical industry”.

“Many citizens in Cork and across Ireland will be very concerned for their jobs and for their futures,” he said. “In our view, the Irish Government must act now to ensure that jobs are protected and that preparations are now made to support businesses in adverse times.”

His constituency colleague, Fine Gael junior minister Jerry Buttimer, said international pharmaceutical companies based in Cork “value our free, open access to the European Union market”, “our highly educated, English-speaking workforce”, and “our stable economic and political environment”.

It was recently reported that Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla had said the pharma company had manufacturing plants in the US that were operating at good capacity.

“If something happens, we will try to mitigate by transferring from manufacturing sites outside to manufacturing sites here [in the US].”

Significant threat

Eli Lilly, which has a plant in Kinsale, has recently announced multi-billion dollar investment in US plants.

Fianna Fáil North Central TD Pádraig O’Sullivan said that the US administration’s change in policy in relation to tariffs posed “a significant threat” to the Irish economy, but said that the Government had run “budget surpluses in the last few years and invested in contingencies in preparation for such incidents”.

Cork South Central TD Seamus McGrath described tariffs as “counterproductive” and expressed confidence that common sense would prevail.

Social Democrat TD Pádraig Rice said that it was clear that Mr Trump was focused on Ireland’s pharma industry.

“Given that pharma comprises around €100bn — or 45% — of our goods exports, this is deeply concerning,” he said.

Independent Ireland Cork North Central TD Ken O’Flynn suggested there was a “sense of genuine industry-wide panic among many of the estimated 12,000 pharmaceutical workers in Cork, where seven of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies are located”.

Cork Chamber’s Conor Healy said it was in “everyone’s interest that the strong and economic and cultural relationship with the US continues to thrive”.