{"id":342081,"date":"2026-02-17T17:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/342081\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T17:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:07:13","slug":"irish-exports-hit-record-high-last-year-as-companies-rushed-to-beat-trumps-tariffs-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/342081\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish exports hit record high last year as companies rushed to beat Trump\u2019s tariffs \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The value of Irish exports went up by 16.4 per cent last year to a record \u20ac260.3 billion, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Exports to the United States were a driver in this increase, with many companies front-loading exports to the country ahead of US president Donald Trump\u2019s Liberation Day tariffs announcement last April.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The figures, which are preliminary, show the value of goods exported increased by \u20ac36.6 billion in the year when adjusted for seasonal factors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland\u2019s top trading partners were the United States, the Netherlands, and Belgium, as the country exported \u20ac111.7 billion (42.9 per cent), \u20ac25.7 billion (9.9 per cent), and \u20ac15.8 billion (6.1 per cent) worth of goods to those countries respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Exports to the US increased by 52 per cent, or \u20ac38.2 billion, to \u20ac111.7 billion in the year. However, December\u2019s year-on-year exports to the US fell 41.1 per cent to \u20ac3.3 billion, reflecting the fluid nature of the trade environment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Exports of medical and pharmaceutical products, which represented 53.2 per cent of all our exported goods, increased by \u20ac38.9 billion, or 39 per cent, to \u20ac138.6 billion over the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Robert Purdue, senior client portfolio manager at global financial services firm Ebury, said the figures need to be viewed \u201cin context\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cA significant driver was multinationals front-loading goods exports into the US ahead of tariffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThat helped push exports to the US up 52 per cent across the year, but this momentum may prove difficult to sustain into 2026 as a more restrictive trade environment takes hold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIndeed, the sharp 41.1 per cent year-on-year fall in exports to the US in December highlights how quickly flows can shift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/economy\/2026\/01\/26\/ireland-in-the-crosshairs-if-european-union-ever-retaliates-to-any-trump-tariff-threat\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland in the crosshairs if European Union ever retaliates to any Trump tariff threatOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Carol Lynch, head of customs and international trade services at BDO, said the numbers were \u201cimpressive\u201d but also \u201cslightly skewed\u201d by the significant level of US pharmaceutical and related exports, particularly during the early part of the year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThese exports were at their height before the imposition of the Trump tariffs, particularly in the January to March period, in order to avoid any risk of a 25 per cent or 50 per cent tariff or worse being imposed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe are now seeing US exports re-adjust in December 2025, reducing by 41 per cent versus December 2024, with the reduction particularly occurring in pharmaceuticals and chemicals (over 50 per cent) following the trend from November.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">However, she added that the scale of Ireland\u2019s exposure to US trade policy and its knock-on impact on global trade rules \u201cremains stark\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAlmost 43 per cent of our exports in 2025 were to the US,\u201d she said. \u201cThe value of Irish exports to the EU of chemicals and related products was almost \u20ac60 billion. At the same time, the same product exports to the US were almost \u20ac95 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhile some of the uplift reflected stockpiling ahead of anticipated tariff changes in early 2025, the figures nonetheless underline a central truth: Ireland\u2019s economic performance is heavily dependent on the US market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAs a result, US trade policy now plays an outsized role in shaping Irish economic outcomes and our understanding of the rules around accessing the US market is becoming increasingly critical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Lynch said companies can no longer afford to operate on the assumption that instability is temporary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cInstead, resilience and agility have become essential board-level attributes rather than operational buzzwords,\u201d she said. \u201cThe challenge is to translate those qualities into practical, structured action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAs the certainty or rules-based order we have been operating in disintegrates it requires companies to be more tuned in to geopolitics, regional allies and the potential impact on exports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The value of Irish exports went up by 16.4 per cent last year to a record \u20ac260.3 billion,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,356,179,18,19,17,2554,1997,1411],"class_list":{"0":"post-342081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-pharma","15":"tag-trade","16":"tag-us-tariffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116087072055383361","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}