Irish exports to US fall by 62% in April as Trump announces tariffs

Irish goods exports to the US fell by 62 per cent in April after
US President Donald Trump
imposed
tariffs
on all
European Union
(EU) imports.
The latest trade figures from the
Central Statistics Office
(CSO) show export volumes to the US dropped by €16 billion in one month after Mr Trump's so-called 'liberation day' tariff announcement.
Exports of medical and pharmaceutical products globally fell by 54 per cent or €12.8 billion in April compared with the previous month.
US tariffs have thrown global trading patterns into turmoil. The value of Irish goods exports for the first three months of the year rose by 44 per cent as multinationals here stockpiled product in the US ahead of the imposition of tariffs.
READ MORE
The figures for April show the value of goods exports globally fell by 43 per cent to €21.9 billion in April compared with the record €38.1 billion recorded in March.
However when compared with April 2024, goods exports were still up by €2.5 billion.
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Irish economy expands by almost 10% as exporters rush to beat tariff deadlines
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In the first four months of 2025, exports of medical and pharmaceutical products represented 60.2 per cent (€66.9 billion) of total Irish exports.
This represented a 117 per cent increase on figures from 2024.
Mr Trump has threatened to impose 50 per cent tariffs on most goods imports coming from the EU but has put a stay on the measure until July 9th to allow for talks.
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So far pharma, which accounts for the lion's share of Irish exports to the US, has avoided tariffs.
In April, Ireland's top exporting partners were the US, the Netherlands and Britain, with Ireland exporting 44.5 per cent (€9.7 billion), 9.5 per cent (€2.1 billion) and 6.2 per cent (€1.35 billion) of total export goods respectively to these countries.
Ireland imported the highest value of goods from Germany, Britain and the US with these countries representing 15 per cent (€1.6 billion), 12.4 per cent (€1.3 billion) and 11.3 per cent (€1.2 billion) of the total import trade for the month.
Carol Lynch, head of customs and international trade services at BDO, said the sharp fall-off in exports in April
was to be expected.
'This is largely attributable to a reduction in exports to the US as stockpiling decreased after the imposition of the Liberation Day Universal tariffs on 5th April,' she said.

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RTÉ News​

3 hours ago

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Irish Times

3 hours ago

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Ireland needs to ditch empty promises and economic fairy tales and start confronting reality

The next six weeks or so are going to go a long way to defining the Government's term in office. The printers are going to be busy. We are due an updated housing plan, a new strategy on competitiveness and productivity, the Summer Economic Statement and a new medium-term budget strategy along with a revised National Development Plan outlining state investment plans. Then, in the middle of all this, there is the deadline for the US/EU tariff talks on July 9th. The Government needs to use this crucial period to set some kind of coherent economic narrative for its term. So far it has been firing blanks. For example, bits of its housing plan are drip-feeding out in an often-disorganised fashion. Perhaps this is meant to give the impression of busyness, but all it does is confuse people. READ MORE At the heart of all this is credibility. A believable strategy must have some hope of delivery. And here the State – in the widest sense of the Government and the public service – is struggling. 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