Donald Trump accuses Ireland of luring companies away from US

US President Donald Trump says he would have worked to prevent US companies setting up in Ireland. Photo / Getty Images

• Donald Trump criticised Ireland for using tax policies to attract US companies, threatening trade escalation.
• He said he would have imposed a 200% tariff on companies moving to Ireland to deter them from leaving.
• Trump also threatened action against the EU, aiming to rebalance the US trade deficit.

Donald Trump has criticised Ireland for using its tax policies to lure away US companies, as he threatened to escalate his trade war with the EU.

Speaking in the Oval Office next to Irish Premier Micheal Martin, he took aim at Ireland’s use of its tax system to attract pharmaceutical and other companies.

He said: “We do have a massive deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents that didn’t know what they were doing and it’s too bad that happened.”

Trump said that had he been President when Ireland began to use its tax system to attract US companies, he would have retaliated.

He said: “When the pharmaceutical companies started to go to Ireland, I would have said that’s okay if you want to go to Ireland I think that’s great, but if you want to sell anything into the United States, I’m going to put a 200% tariff on you so you’re never going to be able to sell anything into the United States.

“You know what they would have done? They would have stayed here.

“I have great respect for Ireland and what they did. And they should have done just what they did, but the United States shouldn’t have let that happen.”

Dublin introduced a 12.5% corporation tax rate in 1997, which led to some large US companies recording large revenues in the country.

The US President also threatened further action against the EU, saying that he would “respond” to the EU’s retaliatory tariffs.

“We’ve been abused for a long time and we will be abused no longer,” he said.

“The European Union treats us very badly, and they have for years,” he added. “They sue our companies and win massive amounts of money. They sued Apple ... and they use that for other reasons, I guess, to run the European Union.”

He said that the EU’s policies “create ill will, and as you know, the reciprocal tariffs”.

Trump said his reciprocal tariffs, which he has pledged to introduce next month, will help rebuild US manufacturing.

He said tariffs will restore fairness to US trade and rebalance his country’s “massive [trade] deficit” with the rest of the world.