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Exports from Ireland to the U.S. sank by 23%, suggesting multinational companies shifted course after a jump in shipments before the announcement of tariffs earlier in the year.
Foreign sales plummeted €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) from a year ago in June to €4.4 billion, the statistics office said Friday. At 60%, the monthly drop was even more pronounced.
The numbers may be the result of U.S. drugmakers with Irish manufacturing bases stockpiling in the first quarter to front-run tariffs. In March, for example, U.S. exports from Ireland jumped almost 400% from a year earlier.
President Donald Trump has singled out Ireland for a low-tax model that’s enticed pharma giants like Pfizer Inc. and Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. to set up shop. He’s threatening levies on the sector to try to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.
Lilly has operated in Ireland since the late 1970s and has more than 3,500 employees across manufacturing sites in Limerick and Kinsale, global business services in Cork and a commercial team which operations nationwide. In fall 2024, the company announced a $1.8 billion investment in its manufacturing sites, $1 billion of which would be directed to its Limerick biopharmaceutical facility.
At the time of the announcement, the company said the Limerick site would make biologic active ingredients for various medicines, including treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Lilly said it expects to begin production there in 2026.
A month later, in October 2024, Indianapolis International Airport announced the addition of a nonstop flight from Indianapolis to Dublin, via the airline Aer Lingus. The flights began in early May of this year.
Ireland’s government has warned that 75,000 extra jobs may not be created if pharma tariffs are imposed. Other parts of the economy are also at risk, with the struggling whiskey industry seeing closures in recent months.
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