Impact of tariffs on Irish businesses felt as early as this weekend – Ibec warns

By Cate McCurry, PA

The impact on Irish businesses and jobs from US tariffs will be felt immediately, including as early as this weekend, Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy has warned.

According to Mr McCoy, demand for some Irish products will “drop quite substantially” from as soon as this weekend, forcing some employers to slash workers’ hours.

He made the comments after he and other industry leaders and representatives met with senior ministers at the Government Trade Forum on Friday to discuss the impact of US tariffs on Irish exports.

Mr McCoy said that the impact on demand for fast-moving consumer goods, like the drinks industry, will be felt immediately.

“There is immediacy for firms this weekend, who know that their demand is likely to drop quite substantially and their workers will need to go on short-time working,” he added.

He and other industry leaders have called for short-term government for workers and businesses affected by tariffs imposed by the United States.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and others have called for the introduction of measures similar to those introduced during Covid, such as short-time work schemes, to protect jobs and businesses from the fallout of the tariffs.

Mr McCoy backed those proposals.

“Our experiences from both Covid and Brexit was, it’s much better to have people to remain connected to their employer until this moment es,” he added.

“This thing is moving fast, and after our meetings today with Leef (Labour Employer Economic Forum), I’m sure that that mood will have changed.

“We just made the point in of communication, that this was time-bound, not something in perpetuity. Let’s have workers on short-time working.”

Asked whether he is getting warnings from Ibec that they will be forced to put workers on short-time work, he added: “Warnings would be too strong a word, it’s just the reality of the market. If your demand is likely to dry up, you have an excess supply, both of the product and workers.”

He also warned that pharma firms will not be exempt from tariffs, despite being left off Mr Trump’s initial tariff plan.

“I think the genie is out of the bottle. President Trump has started something that he might not be able to control that involves the rest of the world as well,” he continued.

“The first thing is to hope that we can get to a negotiation point.

“It’s hard to know in the unpredictability of President Trump but where the checks and balances come on the US side, we will all be waiting.”

He said the impact will also be felt by consumers and industries in the United States.

“This is a new world order. And as I said before, America started something that it thinks it might be able to control but it clearly can’t,” he added.

Asked whether the Taoiseach Micheal Martin appeared agreeable to the introduction of job and business s, Mr McCoy said: “I think the Taoiseach’s response was that this may be different to Brexit and Covid, that we need a structural change in the economy.

“I agree with that. But the only distinction there was the thing that was missing, we were talking about time-bound.

“It’s not things permanently in place, because in this new world order, we will have to change.”