Ireland’s deputy premier has described this weekend’s negotiations between the European Union and the US as “vital”, saying there “isn’t an hour to lose”.
The European commissioner for trade and economic security, Maros Sefcovic, will travel to Washington on Sunday and hold talks with US officials.
It comes after US President Donald Trump announced he is putting a 90-day pause on US tariffs, while the EU confirmed it will also pause its countermeasures.
Speaking in Athlone in Co Westmeath, Simon Harris, who is also Ireland’s foreign affairs and trade minister, said it is important to “utilise this pause”.
“This is a vital weekend, and I think there isn’t an hour to lose, because we have a 90-day pause,” he said.
“But 90 days can come and go quickly, and it’s really important that there’s very intensive engagement now between Europe and between the United States.
“I’m very pleased that my colleague, the EU trade commissioner, will travel to Washington this weekend for engagement with counterparts in the US administration. The pause is welcome. The pause is important. The pause was essential.
“But remember, it’s a pause against a backdrop that is still far from ideal.
“There’s still 10% tariffs in place on EU goods, and you still have 25% in place in British cars, steel and aluminium and you still have this tit-for-tat, escalatory situation between the United States and China.
“It cannot be good for the global economy. So it is really important that we actually utilise this pause and put it to good use, put it to work for the people who right across this country, right across Europe and right across America say, ‘Will you ever get on with it?’.
“Europe didn’t look for this tariff situation. Europe didn’t want to be engaged in a trade dispute with the United States.
“We’ve constantly said this needs to be approached in a calm, measured way.
“We’ve constantly said talks before tariffs would be desirable. It’s disappointing that the US wanted to do tariffs before talks. But we are where we are in relation to that.
Continuing with our measured and coherent response to the global trading situation, Ireland supports the suspension of EU counter measures for 90 days.
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 10, 2025
This further enhances the space and environment for meaningful & substantive engagement between the EU and US.
“I think this weekend is of vital importance in having formal and established contacts between the EU and the United States. I’ll travel to the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday in Luxembourg, and that will provide me with another opportunity to engage with counterparts from across the EU.
“I think that’s vital too, because what we’ve seen so far is the European strategy of being calm and measured in our approach is the right one.
“What you don’t want to do is anything escalatory, and what you don’t want to do is have any disunity across Europe.
“From an Irish perspective, purely, we’ve seen that by engaging with the European Union, we’ve actually been able to ensure things like dairy and whiskey and the drinks industry’s concerns were addressed in relation to the EU’s initial response.”
Earlier, Ireland’s finance minister said members of the Eurozone will use the 90-day pause to engage in a “constructive way” with the US.
Paschal Donohoe welcomed Mr Trump’s decision, saying it will provide the EU with an opportunity to negotiate “an alternative path”.
Mr Donohoe, who is chairing a meeting of the Eurogroup in Warsaw, said the EU will use the weeks ahead to find a better way of dealing with the issues.
He said: “We will respond back at the appropriate point to further trade developments that could take place within the United States.
“We very much welcome the pause that is there at the moment because it provides a window for opportunities.
“But what we will now do is use those 90 days to engage in a constructive way with the United States, to see if we can identify and negotiate an alternative to a path that will lead us all to a world of lower growth, of higher inflation, to many risks to the progress that we’ve made in recent years.
“In Europe we don’t want to see that happen, and we’ll be using the weeks that now await to, I hope, have structured engagement with the United States and find a better way of dealing with all the different issues that are at the heart of this trade.”
Meanwhile, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said the escalation between the US and China is “damaging” for the global economy.
He made the comments after China said it will increase its tariffs on US imports to 125% after the US said it would raise tariffs on goods from China.
Speaking in Dublin on Friday, Mr Chambers said it will have “spillover effects” on the European Union.
“The European Union is working to mitigate those in the context of this ongoing period of flux but the wider development of this will undermine global trade,” Mr Chambers said.
“It’ll slow growth, it’ll constrain economic prosperity and undermine living standards globally, particularly with the two major trading blocks in a retaliatory tit-for-tat type of environment.
“It undermines broader trading and investment in global terms, and as an open trading economy in Ireland and indeed the European Union, we will see impacts if this continues to escalate.
“That’s why we want to see the process of pause and negotiation be the central focus for all trading blocks when they’re engaged with the US.”
