Trump’s Tariffs Will Cause Instability & Uncertainty Says Manufacturing NI Boss

You would think that maybe Northern Ireland’s unique position of having their foot in both the EU trading market and the UK trading market would give them some sort of edge, but Manufacturing NI boss Stephen Kelly believes that Trump’s tariffs will hamper NI businesses who are concerned over the instability and the uncertainty that these and maybe further future tariffs will cause.

Indeed the decisions and pronouncements that US President Donald Trump has made since he came to power has left countries worldwide fearful and uncertain about their future. This has led to turbulence and pretty much mayhem over the last few days in the financial markets with billions of dollars wiped off. The US dollar has crashed, which must be making many high profile figures there very jittery, although whether this will throw Trump off course is very debatable.

Trump May Increase The Tariffs Or Remove Them In Future

Here is what Manufacturing NI boss Stephen Kelly said, as quoted from an article on the Irish News website:

“Trump is making it clear that this is not the end of this. Within the executive order, he reserves the right to take a unilateral decision to increase these tariffs or remove them, depending on how negotiations go with other countries and also an assessment on whether the policy is working.

“They’re not going to put their money down, plain and simple,” he said.

“Manufacturers need long-term policy stability in order to have confidence to make an investment to expand or create more manufacturing spaces.

“This has created more uncertainty rather than more opportunity for Northern Ireland.”

Duty Reimbursement Scheme Complex And At Worst Impossible

The article goes on to mention the duty reimbursement scheme, it reads:

As part of the Windsor Framework negotiations, the UK introduced a duty reimbursement scheme in 2023 to repay Northern Ireland firms caught up in the EU’s import duties.

But Stephen Kelly said at best the scheme is complex and at worst impossible.

“It’s too cumbersome and the levels of administration that are required are extreme and the information you need to gather is not always available.

“We’re talking about potentially millions of pounds already,” said the Manufacturing NI boss.

“The EU has already published 99 pages of commodities that it wishes to apply tariffs to as a result of Trump’s steel and aluminium plan.

“That 99 pages could expand to 300 to 400 pages.

“Multiply that by hundreds of commodities and different movements and it’s going to be impossible for manufacturers to navigate through it,” he said.

“We need the Prime Minister to meet with the European Union and say each of us have a treaty responsibility towards Northern Ireland and we need to be careful in terms of our responses here.”

All businesses hate instability, they need the waters to be calm so that they can plan and make considered decisions over trading and growth, but at present there looks to be nothing but a choppy sea on the horizon.