Ireland’s prime minister has said the country could lose €10bn in corporate tax if just three US multinationals were repatriated to America under a hostile Donald Trump administration.
His remarks come just days after Trump nominated Wall Street investor Howard Lutnick to lead the department of commerce with direct responsibility for trade.
While Trump has already warned he would impose tariffs on EU imports, Lutnick has singled out Ireland for criticism saying “it is nonsense that Ireland of all places runs a trade surplus at our expense”.
Simon Harris said if he was returned as taoiseach in Friday’s general election, he would immediately seek engagement with Trump. He has also proposed an early EU-US trade summit to avert damage in trade ties with the overall European trade bloc.
“If three US companies left Ireland it could cost us €10bn [£8.5bn] in corporation tax,” Harris said on Monday while canvassing in Dundrum, Dublin.
“I’m not pre-empting it, I’m not saying that’s going to happen, I’m not predicting it, but that is the level of risk that our economy is exposed to,” he said.
Ten multinationals account for 60% of Ireland’s corporate tax receipts, with Microsoft, which books some global as well as EU revenues through Ireland, thought to be the single biggest contributor.
Ireland’s goods trade surplus with the US is now a record €35bn with Irish goods exports up by 8% in the first eight months of 2024, boosted by the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors.
Goods exported to the US totalled €45.5bn between January and August, according to the government’s Central Statistics Office, compared with imports of €11bn for the same period.
Harris said that he had no reason to believe that Trump was not “serious about pursuing the policies that he has campaigned on” which includes repatriating jobs and profits that he believes should be homegrown.
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He also referenced the Wall Street Journal article on what it said was the “US tax system blows a windfall into Ireland” fuelling savings into not just one but two sovereign wealth funds, including a €14bn windfall in back tax from Apple on the foot of a European court of justice ruling.
“The Wall Street Journal front page, gives an indication here” that Trump is intent on action, said Harris.
However, he said Ireland would be prepared and would cope just as it did with “Brexit, Covid [and the] cost of living crisis”.