Vast pharmaceutical factories pepper the green landscape in southern Ireland, but the wind turbines next to the plants outside Cork are in the eye of Donald Trump's global trade storm.

The area around the village of Ringaskiddy and its port in Cork harbour has emerged in recent decades as a base for US pharma giants where products such as Pfizer's Viagra pills are made and shipped off to the United States and worldwide.

Pharmaceuticals are now the motor of Ireland's economy, accounting for around 100 billion euros ($114 billion) in 2024, almost half of all Irish exports, and up around 30 percent from the previous year.

The sector also provides an estimated 20,000 well-paid jobs in County Cork, most of them around Ringaskiddy and the neighbouring commuter town of Carrigaline, and flushes a corporate tax bounty into the Irish exchequer.

But local people are sweating that the good times could end as Ireland has found itself in the crosshairs of the US president's tariff war.

Trump has warned repeatedly that pharmaceuticals are in his sights and that special tariffs for the sector are........

© International Business Times