Cork City Lord Mayor just back from meeting tech firms in San Fran: Trump tariffs won’t affect industry

President Trump met Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Wednesday at the White House during the annual St Patrick’s Day visit, where he repeatedly took aim at Ireland’s low-tax policies, which has ensured a number of major pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Boston Scientific and Eli Lily continue to employ thousands in the manufacturing of medicinal products around Cork harbour.

“We do have a massive deficit with Ireland,” said Trump during the meeting at the Oval Office, “because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents that didn’t know what they were doing. It’s too bad that that happened.

“The Irish are smart, yes, smart people,” Trump said. “You took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies. This beautiful island of five million people has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasps.”

The US President has been threatening a 25% tariff on EU products, with high tariffs already affecting steel manufacturers in Canada. During the meeting with the Taoiseach, Trump said that he would have applied a 200% tariff to combat Ireland’s low corporate tax rate, but it’s not clear what his plans are now to try and take the industry back.

Cork Mayor dismisses tariff concerns

However, the Lord Mayor of the city, Dan Boyle – who recently visited San Francisco as part of the council’s overseas St Patrick’s Day programme – says he is not concerned about the President’s threats.

“It's hard to know. He has a particular belief in tariffs, but he, in his first few weeks, put them on and took them off, and there doesn't seem to be a particular strategic approach to using them. I think it's the threat of using them he sees as being a policy call.

“But at the end of the day, the companies that have established here, and whoever we can attract in the future, they come for a number of reasons, one of which is access to the European market, and manufacturing in the United States, would, I think, remove that. They've already invested heavily here already, so to try to attract people back to America and incur additional costs, I think they're going to think long and hard having those options put in front of them.

“So I think since we were getting the companies who are here and those who have invested is they're very happy with the investment they've made, they're very happy with the quality of the workforce, they're very happy to be able to access the European market, and those things will still stay in their favour I believe.”

Building relationships in Silicon Valley

The Lord Mayor’s recent trip to San Francisco was more focused on the tech sector – from a business point of view – with the city hosting the European headquarters of many of Silicon Valley’s big players. Boyle says it was a worthwhile trip, and a relationship that’s worth continued investment.

“We have a fairly intense itinerary, and I think we ticked a lot of the right boxes. There was a mixture of meeting with the San Francisco authorities, meeting with their police department, and we also had contact with the Irish community, but I found most useful was the commercial side.

“We visited NetApp, who have established a presence here in Cork, in the Docklands, and employ around 100 people and hope to employ 400. As well as an amazing visit to the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, 14,000 people working in this amazing building.

“I felt that we benefited. We a good team with us in terms of the Universities, the Gardaí, the Cork Chamber, so we were we're trying to hit as many targets as possible in terms of maximizing the relationship we have with San Francisco.”

Boyle says the mood music among American multinationals is that they still want to do business in Cork, and that regardless of the President’s remarks, the city can still count on employment from abroad

“We're kind of gratified here that it's relatively solid,” he said about the business relationship between the two cities.

“NETApp are a recent investor in Cork, and they outlined what attracted them, what they like about the place, what they like to see happen, and how the relationship might develop, so that was all very encouraging.

“Apple has a long-standing relationship - it's 45 years old now - and I suppose a sub-theme we were investigating was that we want to make sure that the investment is ongoing, particularly in the light of the changed international political situation.

“We were reassured that very much is the case, that there is a stronger benefit - particularly now - to have this sub-national relationship between cities and regions, rather than depending on a nation-to-nation contact. And I'd be very much in favour of that.”