Irish exports to US to surpass €24bn

Irish exports to the US are set to exceed $30 billion (€24.2 billion) this year after outstripping 2003 levels by nearly 22 per cent between January and April, it emerged yesterday.

Mr Philip Byrd, director general of the American Importers Association, said yesterday that in the first four months of this year, the value of Irish exports to the US topped $10 billion, 21.8 per cent ahead of the same period last year.

Addressing the Irish Exporters Association (IEA) president's lunch in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Mr Byrd said growth of Irish exports outstripped increases achieved by the UK and the rest of the EU, which were in the region of 10 per cent.

"If that rate continues, as I'm sure it will, then the value of Irish exports to the US is likely to reach $31.3 billion by the end of the year," he said.

Mr Byrd added that this would rank Ireland as the US's eighth largest trading partner. The US is now the Republic's biggest export market.

He told the gathering that only China topped the Irish performance, achieving export growth in the US of 28 per cent in the first third of the year.

According to Mr Byrd, chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, medicines and other products, accounted for $7 billion of the $10 billion total. The next category was manufactured goods, the third was computers and electronic products, the fourth was machinery and the fifth was beverages.

He also said that in a survey of 100 US importers, Irish goods had an approval rating of 86 per cent, on a par with most EU countries. China, one of the biggest exporters to the US, had a rating of 78 per cent. He advised companies targeting the US to watch key indicators like consumer confidence and housing starts.

Speaking at the lunch, IEA president Mr Michael Counahan called on the Government to act quickly to implement the recommendation in last week's Enterprise Strategy Group report to establish a dedicated export unit within Enterprise Ireland. He argued that it should have its own advisory board and be properly resourced.

He also argued that Irish exporters needed cost-effective and advanced communications to develop their businesses, and warned that broadband roll-out in the Republic was still far behind that of other European countries.