Phil Hogan appears at EU virtual event after technical difficulties

EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan on Wednesday made his first official appearance as commissioner since the "golfgate" controversy emerged, at an EU virtual event organised in Washington.

Following technical difficulties, Mr Hogan failed to appear on screen during the first 10 minutes of the event, but subsequently joined to participate in the forum.

Last week, Mr Hogan attended the Oireachtas Golf Society event in Clifden, with 80 others, and his movements to and from the controversial event while coronavirus restrictions were in place have been under scrutiny.

Mr Hogan spoke about the EU-US trade relationship at the event on Wednesday, titled The Changing Global Order in a post-pandemic world, which was organised to coincide with this week’s Republican National Convention.

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“We have recently concluded a tariff reduction deal. Hopefully it’s the beginning of many more deals,” he said, referring to the trade agreement that he states he was working on during his controversial trip to Co Galway last week.

“I do appreciate the very strong collaboration that I have developed with ambassador [Robert] Lighthizer and his team,” he said, referring to the US trade representative, adding: “I am very anxious to continue that collaboration with him.”

“Trade between the two global blocs in the world is very important,” he said. “We trade $3 billion a day. This is huge business, we should be looking at how we can continue to have this very strong relationship.

"It's up to the best horse to jump the ditch as we say in my native country of Ireland. "