Member's statement: Transatlantic Trade War
Member's statement by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on .
- MLA
- Dr Steve Aiken OBE
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 1 April 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Transatlantic Trade War
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4876518
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Before I start, I make a declaration of interest as an ex-chief executive of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce. Members, 1 April is supposedly a day of humour, but it is no joke when Donald Trump says that he is going to call tomorrow "independence day" and impose swingeing tariffs — some between 20% and 25% — on international and global trade. Many of us here support the existence of a good economy across this island. We do not wish to see the economy of the Irish Republic being severely damaged. However, there is no doubting the potential for the Irish Republic's trade with the United States to halve and for its tax revenue to decrease significantly. We in this Chamber know the impact of the Windsor framework and the divergence of trade that it has caused. It has probably cost hundreds of millions, but nobody has yet come up with the real cost of the challenges of the Windsor framework. Now, we are looking at another set of challenges on this island: significant problems with tariffs and the way in which the Irish Republic's economy will be able to deal with them. As a unionist, I take no joy in seeing what is likely to happen. I would take no joy in there being a transatlantic trade war. I do not believe that it would be to the benefit of these islands, Europe or the United States to become involved in a trade war starting tomorrow. The uncertainty, on top of everything else including the war in Ukraine and the conflicts in the Middle East, means that we are now at an inflexion point, and anything that we do should support our economy and our output to be able to do what is best for all our people. We will have real concerns in the days and weeks ahead. I encourage Ministers across the Executive, particularly the Finance and Economy Ministers, to focus in on the real challenges that are about to develop. We need to make sure that Northern Ireland is not left out. We cannot be in a situation where, in a tariff war, Northern Ireland comes out worse. We are already in the worst of both worlds, thanks to the Windsor framework. I do not want our situation to become even more difficult in what is likely to be a transatlantic trade war.
398 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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