Irish PM Micheál Martin arrives for White House assembly | EUROtoday

US President Donald Trump has raised a “massive” commerce imbalance with Ireland and accused the European Union of treating the US “very badly”.

He made the feedback throughout a bilateral assembly with Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin as a part of the Irish authorities’s conventional St Patrick’s Day engagements.

Earlier on Wednesday, the European Union introduced it’s going to impose counter tariffs on €26bn ($28bn) value of US items from subsequent month.

Speaking to reporters within the Oval Office, Trump mentioned: “There’s a massive deficit that we have with Ireland… we want to sort of even that out as nicely as we can, and we’ll work together.”

The EU’s transfer is in retaliation to President Trump’s 25% tariffs on all metal and aluminium imports into the USwhich got here into impact in a single day.

Trump mentioned it had brought about “ill will”.

“The European Union’s been very tough, and it’s our turn too. We get a turn at that also,” he mentioned.

“I’m not knocking it, they are doing what they are doing for the EU, but it does create ill will and you know we are going to do reciprocal tariffs,” he added.

Martin has advised President Trump that overseas funding is a two-way avenue, including that Ireland is “investing a lot more in America now”.

Trump mentioned that the EU was “set up in order to take advantage of the United States”.

When requested if Ireland was additionally making the most of the US, Trump mentioned: “Of course.”

“I have great respect for Ireland, for what they did and they should have done just what they did. But the United States shouldn’t have let that happen. We had stupid leaders, we had leaders who didn’t have a clue.

“All of a sudden Ireland has our pharmaceutical firms, this stunning island of 5 million individuals has received the whole US pharmaceutical trade in its grasps.”

“The Irish are good, good individuals and also you took our pharmaceutical firms – and different firms – however you already know, by means of taxation, correct taxation, they made it very, superb for firms to maneuver up there,” he added.

Trump also said that if he drained Ireland of all the US companies “possibly I’d lose the Irish vote”.

“We do not need to do something to harm Ireland, however we do need equity and [Martin] understands that,” he added.

Earlier, the US president said he was unaware that some political parties were boycotting St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House.

Are wages, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Alliance all ruled out attending events in Washington over the Trump administration’s stance on Gaza.

When asked about the boycotts, Trump replied: “I have never heard that, I actually have not heard that”.

Prior to the meeting, Martin attended a breakfast hosted by Vice-President JD Vance.

Speaking at the breakfast he said that US “has been a steadfast good friend of Ireland for hundreds of years”.

He said the peace process was a “signature achievement of US overseas coverage”, adding that Ireland is “able to play our half in supporting work to finish battle and to safe peace within the Ukraine or within the Middle East or wherever”.

Martin welcomed the “progress that has clearly been made” as a result of the Trump administration’s “unrelenting focus and energy” to safe peace.

Vance described the US-Ireland relationship as “one of many nice alliances and nice friendships between nations”.

He added that Ireland is a country with “extremely neighborhood… stunning panorama and in addition lots of attention-grabbing technological progress”.

“One of the extra sturdy areas for us to work on with our Irish buddies within the years to return goes to be expertise and significantly synthetic intelligence,” he mentioned.

The taoiseach was the first EU leader to return to the Oval Office since the president’s bust-up with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Discussions covered a broad range of issues, including the deep ties between the US and Ireland, shared global challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East, as well as the two countries’ economic relationship.

The bilateral meeting came amid heightened concern over the future of Ireland’s economy, which is heavily reliant on US multinationals.

Trump sees this as a trade imbalance and is keen to entice those companies back to the US.

However, Martin said he would use his visit to the Oval Office to highlight an “more and more two-way” trade and investment relationship.

“Ireland is the sixth-largest supply of overseas direct funding within the US, supporting lots of and 1000’s of jobs throughout the US,” he mentioned.

“This substantial funding underscores the dedication of Irish enterprises to the US market and displays a deepening financial interdependence between the 2 international locations.”

The meeting is also an opportunity for the taoiseach to update Trump on the situation in Northern Ireland, recognising the huge contribution the US has made to securing peace.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill will not be heading to the White House as she is boycotting the St Patrick’s Day festivities there due to Trump’s stance on Gaza.

However, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly will be at the White House reception on Wednesday and is likely to meet Trump.

The two executive ministers led a delegation to North Carolina earlier in the week alongside representatives from Queen’s University Belfast, Invest NI, Catalyst and Software NI.

NI Chamber CEO Suzanne Wylie said the visit was part of a long-term process and they would be inviting a trade mission back to Northern Ireland in the summer from North Carolina.

However, there has been more geopolitical uncertainty this year than last year, including President Trump’s introduction of some tariffs.

She said that while there was uncertainty across the globe right now, “companies actually simply need to create the relationships and get on with doing enterprise with one another and proceed to search for additional funding in a few of our progressive firms”.

Speaking to BBC News NI ahead of the meeting between Trump and Martin, Democrat member of the House of Representatives Brendan Boyle said that “what the Trump administration is doing with respect to tariffs makes no financial sense, and it is not sensible by way of our nationwide safety”.

Boyle said that imposing tariffs on Canada suggests that no country is “secure absolutely from this type of insanity”, including Ireland.

He added that Martin should “remind President Trump that Ireland, regardless of its small dimension, is among the largest buyers within the United States and one of many largest job creators within the United States”.

“On the one hand, [Trump] likes to say, you already know, we’re the very best, he is the very best, He’s the best. Everything is a superlative.

“But then in the next breath, he says, we’re suckers, we’re losers, we’re being taken advantage of by every other country.”

Boyle mentioned that Ireland “punches well above its weight” by way of funding within the United states, and reminding Trump of that “would go a long way”.