Trump Says He'll 'Nicely' Even Out Trade Deficit With Ireland
During a visit by Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin, President Donald Trump brushed away Martin's comments about Irish companies buying Boeing planes and hiring in the U.S. "There's a massive deficit. I don't mean by a little bit," he said, referring to the trade in goods between Ireland and the U.S. "We want to sort of even that out as nicely as we can. We don't want to do anything to hurt Ireland, but we want fairness," he said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Trump said the massive deficit is due to pharmaceutical manufacturing in Ireland, due to its corporate tax policies. "I have great respect for Ireland and what they did, and they should have done just what they did, but the United States shouldn't let it happen. We had stupid leaders. We had leaders that didn't have a clue.
"This beautiful island of five million people -- it's got the entire U.S. pharmaceutical industry in its grips.
"I would've said that's okay if you want to go to Ireland, I think it's great, but if you want to sell anything into the United States, I'm going to put a 200% tariff on you, so you're never going to be able to sell anything into the United States. You know what they would've done? They would've stayed here," Trump went on to say.
Trump, as he often does, slammed the European Union, mentioned a taxation case against Apple that the company lost, and said that the U.S. will "get a turn" to treat the EU as badly as it has treated America.
"I think the tariffs, there are some cases where they're a little beyond reciprocal, because we've been abused for a long time as a country. We have been abused really for a long time, and we will be abused no longer," he said.
A reporter asked, if the EU hikes tariffs on U.S. exports for tariffs the U.S. imposes, will the U.S. respond with more retaliation? "Of course I will respond," Trump said.
Another reporter asked Trump about inconsistencies in the tariffs he announced and withdrew.
"There's no inconsistency," he said irritably. "I have the right, I have the right to adjust. And I was called by the automakers, as an example .... and they asked me to do them a favor. Could I delay it for a period of four weeks so that they're not driven into a little bit of a disaster for them? They actually love what I'm doing, but they had a problem." He said that he's not an immovable wall who just says, "'I won't delay it.' It's called flexibility. It's not called inconsistency. It's called flexibility."
However, Trump added that "there will be very little flexibility once we start" reciprocal tariffs.