President Donald Trump said ‘of course’ when asked if Ireland is taking advantage of the United States, while Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin sat beside him in the Oval Office
Trump says Ireland ‘took our pharmaceutical away’ through taxation
Donald Trump has accused Ireland of ripping off the United States – while sitting right next to the leader of the country.
During a visit from Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin to the White House on Wednesday, Trump spoke of a “massive” trade imbalance between the two countries – and said “of course” when asked if Ireland is taking advantage of the US. He accused the Irish Government of drawing US pharmaceutical companies away through attractive tax rates, and lambasted the EU’s ruling that found that Apple owes billions of euros in taxes.
The US president told reporters in the Oval Office: “There’s a massive deficit that we have with Ireland and with other countries too, and we want to sort of even that out as nicely as we can, and we’ll work together. But the deficit is massive.”
Perhaps the most uncomfortable moment came when he was asked if Ireland was taking advantage of the US, and he said: “Of course they are. I have great respect for Ireland, for what they did and they should have done just what they did. But the United States shouldn’t have let that happen. We had stupid leaders, we had leaders who didn’t have a clue. All of a sudden Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies, this beautiful island of five million people has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasps.”
He also said that Apple had been “treated very badly”, referring to a ruling by the European Court of Justice in September ordering the company to pay €13 billion (£10.9 million) in taxes to Ireland. The court had found that the tax advantages given to the US tech giant by the Irish government amounted to illegal state aid.
But Mr Martin – who sat patiently through most of Trump’s comments – interjected to say “we fought with them” on the EU case, referring to how Ireland’s government had told Brussels it did not want to collect the taxes. Donald Trump, who on Wednesday imposed 25% global steel tariffs that affected both the UK and EU, said: “It’s the European Union, isn’t it? The European Union is going after our companies. We have a problem in the European Union. They don’t take our farm products. They don’t take our cars. We take millions of cars, BMWs and Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagens and everything, we take millions of cars. I’m not happy with the European Union and we’re going to win that financial battle.”
The Irish Taoiseach also highlighted a “two-way street” of investment between the nations, using Ryanair’s purchasing of US-made Boeing aeroplanes as an example. Elsewhere, Mr Martin praised Mr Trump’s work on “peace initiatives” for Ukraine and Gaza, avoiding mentioning the differences between the two countries on recognition for a Palestinian state.
Talking to reporters after his meeting with President Trump, the Irish premier said the President “likes Ireland” and has a fondness for the Irish people. “I think he put it in a fairly different way than perhaps people might have expected. But nonetheless, he was clear”, he said. Mr Martin returned to the White House in the evening and presented Trump with a bowl of shamrocks at an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
