Irish Examiner view: Trump's tariff threats make this the time to get serious

US president's threat to global trade means the EU must prepare to defend itself. And in Ireland, that means we don't need any more distractions such as the Dáil speaking time row

As Taoiseach Micheál Martin has pointed out, the prospect of the tariffs threatened by US president Donald Trump has been enough to make companies pause plans for development and expansion. File picture: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP  

Today we are expected to learn more detail about Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs, a plan which seems to have been hanging over the entire world for a very long time.

That detail may not be the final word, of course — we have seen in the case of Canada, for instance, that tariffs may be suggested, imposed, withdrawn, modified, and reimposed with dizzying speed.