Ireland’s growing US trade surplus under scrutiny

Despite a conciliatory meeting over the week end in Mar-a-Lago with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, US president Donald Trump will still relish an opportunity to chop down on imports from China and any other country with which there is trade imbalances, as he pursues his major campaign promise to tackle the $500bn (€472bn) trade deficit and bring back jobs to US soil.

Trump’s executive order released at the end of March has put Ireland on the same chopping block as China, Mexico and Canada who sell a hell of a lot more goods into the US than they buy.

The stated intention of the order is to investigate “unfair” trade practices that contribute to the trade deficit, which President Trump maintains is the cause of US job losses.