Watch: 'We've got over worse things before' - Mulvihill on tariffs
Ireland has "got over worse things before" in relation to the US tariffs, according to the director of the industry group which represents the interests of Ireland’s primary and secondary dairy processors,
According to Conor Mulvihill, director, Dairy Industry Ireland (DII) the decision by President Donald Trump to impose “reciprocal tariffs”, including a 20% tariff on the EU as whole, which will cover EU – and Irish – agri-food, still came as a "shock".
But he said that while the sector had been preparing for the possibility of a US tariffs announcement "for some time", the US is a significant market and "we want to to hold it".
Mulvihill told Agriland: "Obviously we've got mitigation strategies in terms of looking at alternative markets around the world, particularly in the single market and there's huge opportunities still in the single market, but we want to hold what we have in America".
He said also it is positive timing that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is leading an Irish trade mission to the US next week.
According to Mulvihill there remains a great deal of uncertainty about exactly the level of tariffs that Ireland may face.
He said it is unclear if the tariffs are on top of other tariffs or if they are stacked but he said at the very least the scenario is for example "about a 20 to 30% tariff on Irish butter particularly"
"We have a billion euro of Irish grass-fed product going into the United States and we have a huge success story dominated by that Kerrygold brand which the Americans love, so it will have implications but we're still working out exactly what it means for the industry and for farmers.
"Kerrygold is the second most popular butter brand in the United States - that's a phenomenal success and so we're particularly exposed - so we'll be urging government to sit down and negotiate very much with the American administration.
" Obviously we're already working in lockstep with the European Union in terms of what they're going to do and counter tariff measures and things like that like. The industry will be at our heart," the DII director added.
One thing he is sure about is that the furore over the US tariffs strategy is "not going to be sorted by megaphone diplomacy".
He stressed to Agriland: "We don't want it to escalate more, I think and the European unions are their sound is quite good - take two weeks settle down, mitigate a plan and see how we can maybe get our way around this.
"If we can't get our way around it then look at alternatives, look what financial assistance can be made, what new markets can be looked at, look at new marketing campaigns and we'll work it from there.
"We''ve got over worse things before, we've gone through Brexit, Covid, Ukraine crisis - we'll get over this as well," Mulvihill said.
Additional reporting by Hugh Harney
