{"id":623789,"date":"2026-09-13T22:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T22:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623789\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T22:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T22:08:11","slug":"trump-scraps-tariffs-on-irish-whiskey-on-behalf-of-the-united-states-of-america-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623789\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump scraps tariffs on Irish whiskey \u2018on behalf of the United States of America\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> made the surprise announcement that he would remove tariffs from Irish whiskey at the end of his two-day visit to Ireland.<\/p>\n

It came shortly before he presented golfer Shane Lowry<\/a> with the winner\u2019s trophy after he triumphed in the Irish Open<\/a> tournament at Trump\u2019s golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Irish whiskey was impacted as part of wide-ranging tariffs the Trump administration imposed on imports from the European Union<\/a> and elsewhere. <\/p>\n

Those on Irish whiskey were as high as 15 per cent last year, but that was subsequently reduced to 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

It is understood Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> raised the issue with Trump during their meeting at Farmleigh on Saturday.<\/p>\n

As he wrapped up his address to the crowd at the Irish Open, Trump said: \u201cI want to mention one thing [the] Taoiseach and I talked about it, and Shane [Lowry] talked about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s been bugging me. They\u2019re saying, \u2018Will you do me a favour, it\u2019s so unfair what\u2019s going on. Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish Whiskey Association (IWA)<\/a> quickly welcomed the announcement. Director Eoin \u00d3 Cath\u00e1in said: \u201cNothing exemplifies the US-Ireland trade relationship better than Irish whiskey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exports to the US were worth \u20ac450 million in 2025, he said, while Irish distillers purchased \u20ac80 million worth of US whiskey casks. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis relationship represents thousands of jobs and millions in investment on both sides of the Atlantic, and the return to tariff-free trade for our Irish whiskey distillers will strengthen this success and lead to further growth and investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tanaiste Simon Harris<\/a> said the announcement was of economic significance and reflected the importance of the economic relationship between Ireland and the US. Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke<\/a> said the US was a \u201cvital market for our many quality local distillers across the country\u201d, and the move would protect jobs. <\/p>\n

At the post-tournament press conference, Lowry was asked about Trump\u2019s remarks that the golfer had been among those with whom he had discussed whiskey tariffs. Lowry joked: \u201cIrish distillers better be sending me a cheque soon. That must be worth a few quid to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach defended the manner in which he raised the issue of Gaza<\/a> with Trump, including how he had not referred to what had happened in the Palestinian enclave as genocide. <\/p>\n

People Before Profit<\/a> TD Paul Murphy<\/a> accused the Taoiseach of an \u201cabject failure to challenge Trump\u201d on the issue. Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> MEP Kathleen Funchion<\/a> \u2013 who joined protesters near Trump\u2019s golf resort in Doonbeg on Sunday \u2013 argued that the Irish people \u201cwould have liked for Miche\u00e1l Martin to be a lot stronger\u201d on Gaza and the \u201cupholding of international law and accountability for Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Martin said his main focus was \u201caccelerating getting more aid to Gaza\u201d and that this was the \u201ckey issue now for the Palestinians\u201d. He said he had received a thank you message \u201cimmediately afterwards\u201d from the Palestinian ambassador. <\/p>\n

Martin also mentioned Ireland\u2019s intervention in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case taken by South Africa<\/a> alleging genocide by Israel<\/a> in Gaza and said: \u201cI took that decision with the Government some time back and we have been very consistent as a country in relation to the Middle East and in relation to the Palestinian question.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the US president \u201cundertook to do everything he possibly could to get aid into Gaza and particularly the Irish contribution in respect of that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked whether he told Trump that what was happening in Gaza was genocide, Martin said: \u201cNo, I didn\u2019t use that term specifically,\u201d while denying he had changed his language on the issue when meeting Trump.<\/p>\n

The US president\u2019s whirlwind visit to Ireland ended on Sunday. Trump praised the hospitality of the Irish people he had experienced, while also remarking that some were among the \u201cmost vicious bastards\u201d he has done business with during his two-day visit. <\/p>\n

He said Irish-based medical companies had \u201cfleeced\u201d the US by not paying taxes there.<\/p>\n

Following his arrival in Ireland on Saturday, Trump first visited the Phoenix Park, where he met President Catherine Connolly<\/a> in \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in and then the Taoiseach in Farmleigh House. Afterwards, he spoke at an event in the residence of the US ambassador Edward Walsh at Deerfield, also in the Phoenix Park. <\/p>\n

The president then flew on Air Force One to Doonbeg, where he watched the final two days of the Irish Open. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump made the surprise announcement that he would remove tariffs from Irish whiskey at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[969,3409,61,60,1393,107965,139976,1843,43,7118,30645,12361,1395,70],"class_list":["post-623789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-donald-trump","tag-gaza-strip","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-open","tag-irish-whiskey-association","tag-kathleen-funchion","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-paul-murphy","tag-people-before-profit-alliance","tag-peter-burke","tag-shane-lowry","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}