Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Harris will hold an online meeting with senior representatives from the pharmaceutical sector based in the United States today.
The meeting comes at a critical juncture in EU-US trade talks and amid the ongoing US Section 232 investigation into the pharmaceutical sector.
An important component of Ireland’s economic relationship with the United States includes significant, mutually beneficial trade and investment partnerships in the pharmaceutical sector.
Speaking before the meeting, the Tánaiste said: “The economic partnership between Ireland and the US, and the EU and the US in the pharmaceutical sector, is critically important. Trade and investment in this sector is mutually beneficial.”
Section 232 investigations are focused on national security issues; the integrated supply chain in pharma products between the EU, including Ireland and the US, supports rather than threatens our collective transatlantic economic security,” Mr Harris said.
“Fundamentally, governments and businesses alike have an interest in mutually beneficial transatlantic trade and investment, in supporting jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, and in pursuing negotiated solutions to trade and economic disputes. This is at the core of my ongoing outreach, both to the US government and to representatives of key economic sectors both domestically and in the US,” the Tánaiste added.
Mr Harris has engaged directly with the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the pharma issue.
Ireland’s position is that the treatment of pharma should be within negotiations with the EU on an agreement in principle.
Ireland makes payments in royalties and licences to US pharmaceutical companies of an estimated €20bn, which in turn supports manufacturing of finished products within the US, the EU and across the world.
There are around 49,000 people employed in the pharmaceutical sector in Ireland.
About 80% of what US pharma companies export back to the United States is not the finished product.
It goes into US factories and creates jobs for US workers.
The Government is continuing to engage intensively with the pharma sector as well as with EU partners and the European Commission.
