Irish exports of pharmaceuticals to the US surged in the month leading up to US president Donald Trump’s so-called liberation day tariffs announcement, pushing overall exports to record levels in March, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said on Thursday.
The value of exports from the Republic surged to a record €37.3 billion, almost double the figure for the same month last year.
The surge was fuelled by a more than 243 per cent increase in the value of including pharma and medicinal products exports to €23.6 billion in March from €6.9 billion last year.
Exports to the US climbed by almost 395 per cent in the month to €25.4 billion, compared with March 2024, the CSO said.
Of the total value of goods exported to the US, some 94 per cent were chemicals and related products, which includes pharma and medicinal products.
The value of chemicals and related product exports to the US ballooned by 536 per cent in the 12 months to the end of March, according to the figures, to €23.9 billion compared to €3.8 billion last year.
The dramatic increase is likely to relate to pharmaceutical companies based in the Republic stockpiling goods on the other side of the Atlantic in advance of the unveiling of Mr Trump’s wide-ranging tariff agenda on April 2nd.
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Carol Lynch, head of customs and international trade services at BDO, said the stockpiling trend is likely to continue as more US and retaliatory EU tariffs come into force over the coming months.
“Of course, the outcome will depend on ongoing EU-US trade negotiations,” she said. “However, even in the best-case scenario, exporters are unlikely to see the baseline 10 per cent tariff rolled back any time soon.”
Robert Purdue, head of dealing at financial services company Ebury, said the “sheer scale” of the growth in export values to the US demonstrates the “impressive resilience” of Irish exporters.
However, he said it illustrates the extent to which the Republic is in the “firing line” of Mr Trump’s tariff war.
“With the president targeting countries with trading surpluses with the US, and with his recent criticisms of the European Union, Irish businesses will be hoping that the UK trade deal announced last week will pave the way for a fair and balanced trading arrangement between Ireland and the US,” he said.
Pharmaceutical goods and semiconductors were initially excluded from the 10 per cent duties that Mr Trump imposed on virtually all imports to the US earlier this year.
However, the sector is bracing for impact after the administration initiated a review of pharma imports under the US national security framework last month.
Figures published earlier this week revealed that imports of pharma goods to the US soared about 160 per cent in March from the same month the previous year, and almost doubled from February as companies sought to anticipate any change of course from the White House.
