Ireland nervous as Trump seeks to lure pharma investment

As US President Donald Trump takes aim at the mostly American-owned pharmaceutical firms that dot the countryside of County Cork as well as the rest of Ireland, a cluster of high-tech plants offering well-paid jobs — the product of Dublin’s strategy of attracting multinationals with generous corporate tax policies — has transformed the southerly rural town, quadrupling its population in two decades.

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As US President Donald Trump takes aim at the mostly American-owned pharmaceutical factories that dot the Irish countryside, the people of Carrigtwohill are getting nervous. A cluster of high-tech plants offering well-paid jobs - the product of Dublin's strategy of attracting multinationals with generous corporate tax policies - has transformed the southerly rural town, quadrupling its population in just two decades. The pharmaceutical industry has an outsized presence in Ireland, employing about 2% of the workforce and generating tens of billions of euros in taxes for government coffers.

But if Trump has his way, the good times could be about to end. While pharmaceuticals were exempt from the sweeping duties he announced on Wednesday, a US official said the president is planning separate tariffs targeting the pharma industry. Pharmaceuticals accounted for 58 billion euros ($63 billion) of the 73 billion euros worth of products Ireland exported to the United States last year, a big contributor to the US goods trade deficit with the European Union that has riled Trump. "He is going to do fierce damage," said retired butcher Anthony Barry, 73, at a charity event at Carrigtwohill's community centre, where the tariff threat to the Irish economy dominated conversation.