Donald Trump has accused Ireland of stealing the US pharmaceutical industry and the tax revenue that should have been paid to the US treasury, as he laid into the EU. It is a major blow to Irish premier, Micheál Martin, as Trump visited his country.
He took aim at Ireland’s historical low-tax policies, which has lured US multinationals including Pfizer, Boston Scientific and Eli Lilly across the pond.
His comments came as the EU plan to impose “countermeasures” on up to €26bn worth of US imports after the US introduced 25% tariffs on global imports of steel and aluminium.
Advantage
“The Irish are smart, yes, smart people,” Trump said. “You took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies … This beautiful island of 5 million people has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasps.”
Trump also said that previous presidents had “lost big segments” of the US economy to Europe and repeated his claim that “the EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States”.
Trump added: “I’m not blaming you. I’m blaming the European Union. The European Union’s gone after our companies.
“We have a problem with the European Union. They don’t take our farm products. They don’t take our cars. We take millions of cars, BMWs and Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagens and everything. We take millions of cars.”
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