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Ireland’s tranche of American multinationals is likely behind an aggressive surge in exports from the country back to the U.S., as companies like Pfizer and Eli Lilly scrambled to ship their Viagra and Mounjaro (Zepbound) to the States before a tariff onslaught.
The Eurozone member’s economy expanded by 3.2% in the first quarter of 2025, according to data released on Tuesday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Compared with the same quarter in 2024, the Irish economy expanded by 13.3%.
It wasn’t Ireland’s homegrown champions driving the country’s impressive Q1 growth. It instead appears to have come from the country’s increasingly precarious multinationals.
“The result was driven mainly by a rise in the multinational dominated sectors in Q1 2025 with a more modest increase in the domestic economy,” the CSO wrote.
Earlier in April, the CSO revealed that Ireland’s exports to the U.S. rose by €8.7 billion ($9.9 billion) in February, or by 210.5%. The overwhelming majority of these exports, around 90%, came from the chemicals sector, which includes pharmaceuticals. Ireland exported a total of $76 billion worth of goods to the U.S. in 2024, leaving it with a €50 billion ($57 billion) surplus.
It may not be a surprise to see a similar monthly increase in March, the month in which firms digested the reality of Donald Trump’s tariff threats and raced to do damage control ahead of April 2’s so-called “Liberation Day.”
Ireland has built up an impressive roster of U.S. corporate giants over this century off the back of a competitive tax policy. Meta, Google, and Apple all have their EU headquarters in the country, employing thousands of residents. As evidenced by February’s strong pharmaceutical export data, a number of the country’s biggest drugmakers have extensive manufacturing operations in Ireland.
Eli Lilly produces the weight-loss variant of its drug Mounjaro in Ireland, while Pfizer and AbbVie respectively manufacture Viagra and Botox in the country. Many of these drugs are shipped back to the U.S. for consumption, with February perhaps marking a panic-buying moment for these products.
In total, U.S. companies account for 10% of employment in Ireland and 72% of foreign direct investment in the country.
Goodbody, Ireland’s oldest operating stockbroker, likened its home country to the U.S.’s “51st State” from an investment perspective, owing to these links. In February, KPMG warned that proposed tariffs could affect one-third of Irish exports.
Trump’s vendetta against the U.S.’s traditional trading partners is on ice after the administration enacted a 90-day pause to retaliatory tariffs based on trade imbalances.
However, companies and policymakers are on tenterhooks as they wait for the president’s next move. Ireland’s pharmaceutical sector, by far the country’s most exposed, could be next in line.
Speaking earlier in April, Trump promised an audience of Republicans that “major” tariffs were coming to pharmaceutical imports “very shortly.”
European pharmaceutical companies are turning on their home continent, threatening to accelerate moves to the U.S. if the EU doesn’t overhaul its regulation and intellectual property practices.
U.S. drugmakers, meanwhile, will continue to feel the heat from the Trump administration to pack up and head back West.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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Ryan Hogg
