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Irish businesses urged to lobby EU over tariffs

Ireland and the EU will not know the full extent of the trade tariffs until April 2
Ireland and the EU will not know the full extent of the trade tariffs until April 2

Customs advisor BDO is urging businesses that export to the US to lobby the EU to get their products removed from tariff lists.

The EU opened a stakeholder consultation process which will end on March 26 and companies can either respond directly or contact their local business representative bodies to make their views known.

"The more lobbying you can do the better, and certainly lobbying has worked in the past for tariffs," said Carol Lynch, Head of Customs and International Trade Services at BDO.

"The EU has opened a stakeholder consultation process, you can do that online or probably more importantly, go to your industry representatives and as a group lobby to get a product removed," Ms Lynch told Morning Ireland.

"So if you can't import your product from anywhere other than the US, that would be a very reason for not having that product on the list of EU counter tariffs so absolutely really important to get your views known there."

Ireland's exports to the US swelled to €11.7 billion in January, and accounted for 48% of total exports, according to the latest trade figures from the CSO.

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The record figures suggest companies exported as much as they could before tariffs hit. Ms Lynch said it was the sensible thing to do.

"If I was exporting to the US right now, I would be getting as much of my product out to the US before April 2 as humanly possible, and then look at your customs planning alternatives for after that date."

Ireland and the EU will not know the full extent of the trade tariffs until April 2, but the advice is to prepare, and look into new markets.

"If we look at the news reports particularly in Canada, we're seeing US products being removed from the shelves," Ms Lynch said.

"There should be a huge market in Canada for Irish products to replace US products. We also have a free trade agreement with Canada so that's particularly valuable because for most products, you can obtain a 0% customs duty entering in Canada if you qualify as originating in Europe," she added.