It took a while for the significance of Donald Trump’s victory on November 5 to sink in here. Countries such as Ukraine and the UK made pre-emptive efforts to placate Mr Trump. In light of Mr Trump’s declared pre-Russia stance, President Zalenski maintained neutrality through gritted teeth, even though he must have secretly prayed for a Harris victory. The UK, which increasingly relies post-Brexit on its special relationship with the US to sustain the illusion of a role in global politics, made sure to pay advance homage at Mar-a-Lago.
Irish worries were narrower and more specific, but now risk coming to pass. Besides a raft of illiberal social policies mainly of domestic concern, a key element of Mr Trump’s election stump was a promise to protect American businesses behind tariff barriers and to reduce drastically the US rate of corporation tax. Were he to implement such policies, the implications for Ireland are calamitous and obvious.

Protectionist policies
Ironically, tariffs and corporation-tax cuts have been essential Irish policies since the foundation of the State. In 1932, we broke with UK free-trade policy in an attempt to build an Irish industrial base from almost nothing behind high protective tariff barriers. Industrial output grew fairly rapidly in the pre-World War II years, but we never succeeded in breaking into post-war export markets. The demand for labour generated by the new firms........

© The Mayo News