Watch: Heydon 'hopeful' of US trade agreement
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, wants to "work through the strain" to get a trade agreement with the United States of America "sooner rather than later".
Last week, Minister Heydon travelled to the US on a trade mission, in the midst of global uncertainty around tariffs imposed by the US.
The minister told Agriland today (April 14), that the most important part of his trip was "highlighting the fact that tariffs are bad".
He said: "The closest trading relationship we can have is to the mutual benefit of our farmers and American farmers.
"I am conscious that President Trump has announced a 90 day pause - there still is a 10% tariff.
"There still is a huge amount of uncertainty for businesses, so I’m hopeful that engagement will happen at a detailed level between the US and the EU negotiators and we can get to a final resolution over these 90 days".
According to Minister Heydon, some US businesses view some Irish practices as "non-tariff barriers," but stressed that he would argue that is not the case.
"There’s a lot of premium products in the US very much liked and appreciated US consumers.
"They want to keep having that, but we have to work through the details on a case by case basis. Some of what they see as non-tariff barriers, isn’t actually the case," he said.
On the back of his trip to the US, the minister said he is optimistic that Ireland can get a trade deal, "if the US come at it in good faith".
He explained: "We were frustrated that the tariffs came in before negotiations could happen. It was very much our ask, myself and our European colleagues, that they would negotiate before those tariffs came in, they didn’t do that.
"It has created huge strain, they have a lot of countries trying to negotiate in 90 days.
"We want to work through that strain and get to the point where we have an agreement sooner rather than later."
