Exporters want Budget to stop profit slide

The Irish Exporters Association is calling for an imaginative pro-business budget to help stop the dramatic slide in exports and profits.

Irish exporters are experiencing the worst setback in international markets for over a decade, according to IEA Chief Executive John Whelan.

Whelan said today: "In particular the Budget must get competitiveness back into the economy, so that exporters can compete better internationally.

"We cannot continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with inflation at double our trading partners.

"An immediate reduction in VAT notes to those of the late nineties must be a Budget priority, namely 20% for the top VAT note and 12.5% for the mid-note" he added.

Included in the Irish Exporters Association's call for an imaginative budget, is the call for the set up of an Intellectual Property Fund for small to medium-sized enterprises.

It points to the proactive approach of United States Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and President George Bush who have introduced a number of pro-business budgeting and monetary measures to combat the recession.

Calling on the Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy to do likewise, Whelan stated : "Irish exporters need assistance in moving up the value added chain with new products.

"In practical terms they need funding assistance to help with the search for new technology and then the facilities to enable then to transfer the technology into their businesses at low cost.

"The stamp duty of 9% on Intellectual Property Transfer, makes a nonsense of promoting Ireland as a world class centre for biotechnology, science and information technology, this retrograde tax must be removed in the Budget."

Whelan was speaking at the Irish Exporters Association pre-budget submission to the Department of Finance today.