Exporters should be indemnified for any losses incurred due to current trade disputes between the United States and the EU, the new chief executive of the Irish Exporters Association (IEA), Mr John F Whelan, has said.

Mr Whelan said the Government should also immediately begin working with its EU counterparts to ensure the trade dispute does not escalate. He added that exporters were "concerned" the United States now had a WTO ruling to support its decision to impose $191.4 million (€177.29 million) of tariffs on EU exports.

He said identifying what Irish goods would be affected was difficult at this stage because the United States had to re-examine its target list in the wake of the WTO ruling. The estimate from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for the Irish goods under threat, before the outcome of the WTO investigation was known, was about £3 million.

The Minister of State for Trade, Mr Tom Kitt, said yesterday the Government would liase closely with other EU states in the run-up to the next WTO meeting in 10 days, when he expected there would be a "co-ordinated" response to the findings.

Mr Whelan was introduced as the new president of the IEA yesterday, as the association introduced a new Europe-wide survey on export credit management. It revealed that trade debtors constitute more than 30 per cent of total assets on European companies' balance sheets. Up to 82 per cent of the Republic's export sales are made on credit terms, with the number of days' credit varying between 14 and 75, the survey said.