Irish exports to the US have fallen off a cliff — and Trump’s tariffs explain why

The billions wiped from Ireland’s US exports

The scale of the fall says as much about last year as it does about this one. Ahead of the first round of tariffs introduced by US president Donald Trump in early 2025, American importers scrambled to stock up ahead of the charges, creating a surge of goods out of Ireland.

Economic analysts put the reduction down to his trade policies, as reported by The Journal. Trump has rarely been out of the Irish news cycle since, from the tariffs to his visit to Doonbeg.

The UK is quietly picking up the slack

Exports to the United Kingdom went the other way, rising 42.6% from €7.2 billion to €10.3 billion. The fall in US trade is in fact bigger than the drop in overall Irish goods exports, €48.9 billion against €45.4 billion, meaning exports to everywhere else combined grew slightly.

There is a note of caution in the other direction. Exports in June alone were up 7.1% year on year at €18.1 billion, suggesting a correction from that artificial peak rather than a steady decline.

Irish business has taken enough bad news this summer, Aer Lingus’s half-year loss and job cuts among it, but it will take more monthly CSO data before this is a trend.