Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke has said that he is "hopeful rather than confident" that a deal on tariffs can be reached between the US and European Union by 9 July.
A pause on the higher rate of tariffs by the US on a number of countries is scheduled to be lifted in a weeks time.
At present most Irish exports to the US now have tariffs of 10%. But there are significant exceptions including Ireland's pharmaceuticals sector and computer chip manufacturers.
Those arrangements were in place temporarily pending a trade deal between the US and EU but they could now become permanent.
The EU is reportedly negotiating to keep some sectors free of tariffs and accepting 10% duties on other goods.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Mr Burke said Ireland needs to ensure that key sectors including life-science and semiconductors are protected from tariffs, adding that that food and drink exports are on the priority list to try to avoid a tariff.
"We would be trying to avoid as many as we can, but we can't guarantee anything... Even our life-sciences, our semiconductors, we can’t make a determination on that," he said.
"Obviously Maroš Šefčovič is doing the negotiations, we're feeding in and trying to ensure Ireland's priorities and Tánaiste Simon Harris has been very clear in terms of the trade forum today, the work that we are doing to ensure our voice counts in this process."
Mr Burke said that a remission scheme offering rebates to some companies affected by US tariffs is not currently being considered by the Government.
He said that he is currently focusing on "hiving out additional productivity."
"We have a number of supports there that Enterprise Ireland has repurposed; we’ve met over 1,000 clients over the last two months, which shows the work that we're doing trying to increase productivity and also trying to help clients diversify,"
"There are a number of other markets that the EU has free-trade agreements with that we haven't hived out all the opportunity from yet and we need to have our eye firmly on the ball."
10% US tariffs are 'new normal', says Tánaiste
Earlier Tánaiste Simon Harris told a trade forum that US tariffs of 10% on exports from Ireland will be the "new normal" but that efforts are continuing to agree zero for zero taxes in some key areas.
The Government's forum is comprised of State agencies, business groups, unions and senior ministers.
Today's meeting also was told an update on the new strategy for the computer chip industry.
The forum received an economic assessment of impact of tariffs from Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe.
There was a discussion about how Irish companies can diversify into new markets.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
US 'believes in tariffs'
Following the forum, Mr Harris said the EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič was in Washington DC today as negotiations continue on an agreement between the Europe and the Trump administration.
"The US believes in tariffs. Clearly 10% seems to be the baseline in any agreements they have reached so far," he said.
He added the Irish Government was seeking the maximise the number of areas which would be exempt from tariffs.
He earlier confirmed that he wanted to see new rules regarding labelling of alcohol products deferred because he did not want to see an additional trade barrier at this time.
Read more: Industries want to be part of the conversation on US tariffs
