UK and Ireland Trade
There have been relations between Ireland and the UK for as long as history can account for. Relations that have been hostile and complimentary, continue to this very day.
The geographical proximity of Ireland and the UK, the sharing of a common language, the cultural and familial ties means that we are bound together as two nations.
Although our histories have been tense and filled with turmoil, political and social unrest. In recent years, relations between Ireland and the UK have been the strongest they have ever been.
Ireland and the UK emerged from the 2008 Banking crash together with mutual interests. An interest in rebuilding their economies.
In 2010, the UK parliament approved a multi-billion euro loan to Dublin which was met with little to no protest.
The strength of this relationship is of utmost benefits to both Islands and in particular for the benefit of trade between two islands.
IRELAND
The Republic of Ireland’s trade with the UK is worth about €65 billion a year.
Needless to say, Ireland depends very heavily on their trade relationship with the UK with 1 in 5 Irish Exports destined for Great Britain.
There is a particular benefit to the agricultural sector as Irish farmers and dairies sell up to 100,000 tonnes of cheese to the UK.
Similarly, half of Ireland, €2.5 billion beef exports are headed across the Irish Sea.
Even exports that we like to claim as primarily Irish and that are tied up in our own identity at home and abroad, such as Guinness, are owned by British company Diageo. We therefore owe our trade successes, in part, to the UK.
We are hugely dependent on trade with our neighbour and disturbances with this trade, like that of the Anglo-Irish Economic War of the 1930’s can have disastrous effects.
This was a period of time when Ireland refused to continue with reimbursing Britain with land annuities, an obligation that the newly Free State of Ireland had been relieved from in 1925 in the London Agreement.
The Economic/Trade War saw British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald impose a 20% duty tax on all agricultural goods imported to the UK from Ireland.
This accounted for 90% off all Irish exports at the time.
In return the Irish were encouraged to avoid purchasing British goods and to ‘Burn everything British but their coal’.
The results were disastrous for the Irish economy and society.
Although eventually settled by Eamon De Valera, Neville Chamberlain, Sean Lemass and James Ryan with the Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Acts, lifting all duties imposed over the previous years, it was a hard lesson learned by Ireland of how import trade relations with the UK are for such a small nation as ours.
THE UNITED KINGDOM
However, this trade relationship is mutually beneficial and although Ireland are dependent on the UK for trade opportunities, as are the UK with Ireland.
Currently, the Republic of Ireland is the UK’s fifth largest trading partner. This has created up to 400,000 jobs between the Island of Ireland and the Island of Great Britain.
38,000 Irish Companies do Business in the UK every day contributing to their economy and there are 50 Irish Businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange. These businesses include; Smurfit Kappa, Kerry Group and Paddy Power.
In 2016, only 1% of the Republic’s exports went to the Northern Ireland but 30% of Northern Ireland’s exports, which equated to €20 billion of exports, came south. Not only are the trade relationships ‘across the pond’ important to the UK, but also ‘across the border’.
The UK benefits in many ways from the Irish presence in the business sector and from the trade relations that take place. It is within their interest to maintain a healthy trade relationships with Ireland, who has a strong economy and that is forecast to grow by 4.4% in 2018.
THE FUTURE
So what does the future hold for Irish trade?
Previously Britain and Ireland were on a similar path of economic development, their seats in the EU parliament close, their trade relations closer. The occurrence of Brexit means that the UK seat in the EU is non-existent and the future of trade relations up in the air.
With political borders being the forefront of negotiations in the Brexit ordeal, the discussion of Trade policies are taking a backseat creating uncertainty in the future of UK, Ireland relations.
However, Ireland and the UK are bound up in a relationship that spans further and is rooted deeper than Trade policies.
We share a history, we share cultures, we share families and we share traditions.
Although we have disagreed in massive proportions in the past, we are old friends, and as Tánaiste and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, said in Chatham House at the beginning of the year “ the capacity to disagree, openly and honestly, and then to move on, is the mark of genuine friendship”.
Coveney went on to add “British and Irish patrons and officials need to keep working and meeting together, to ensure that the understanding we have of each other does not diminish”
It is through our understanding of one another and respect of the nations identity, that we can survive this time of uncertainty.
Political and Economic interests of our nations may differ but we are tied together with by roots deeper than most in a knot that is very difficult to untie.
We need to work together to maintain our trade and our relationship and realise that we do, in fact , need one another.
In the words of President Higgins, on his 2014 State Visit to Buckingham Palace:
“Ar scáth a cheile a mhairimid”
we live in the shadow and the shelter of one another.
