Madam, - I was amazed to read in Cliff Taylor's article "Euro's rise will hamper economy" (Business, May 20th) about the heavy reliance of Irish exporters on the UK and US markets.
Despite our historical ties with the UK and the presence of US-based multinationals which export back to America, I would have expected Ireland's 30-year membership of the EU to have yielded greater progress in increasing the percentage of total exports sent to continental European and particularly euro-zone countries. The fact that 23 per cent of total Irish exports still go to the UK beggars belief.
And what of Irish-owned industry which, reportedly, exports 44 per cent of its goods to the UK? Why are these companies content to place so much of their produce in one basket? Why are they seemingly so happy to leave their businesses open to the potentially damaging effects of exchange rate fluctuations in a single export market?
Given the likely continued rise in the value of the euro against the dollar and sterling, surely Irish-owned companies should be making strenuous efforts to increase their market shares in the euro zone, where the single currency has eliminated exchange-rate risk.
What are the reasons for such poor export market diversification - high distribution costs, lack of language skills, an entrenched Anglo-Saxon mind-set? - Yours, etc.,
HENRY SMITH,
Balham,
London SW12.