Business leaders are calling for the introduction of a new US economic envoy to Northern Ireland.
The lack of a US appointee to the region, following the departure of Joe Kennedy III, who served in the role under the Biden administration between 2022 and 2024, coincides with a period of uncertainty over President Trump’s introduction of tariffs. “[A new US economic envoy] is more important now than ever – we need somebody to argue our case,” said Darragh Cullen, managing director of Edge Innovate, a Dungannon-based manufacturer of quarrying, mining and recycling equipment that exports products to the US.
Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI said the industry was “pleased with the attention and the access that Joe Kennedy provided for us. In the past there have been positive relationships with all our economic envoys. Anybody that can open doors and carry our case for us [in Washington] is to be welcomed. We would hope this White House would see the value of doing something similar again.”
There may be a glimmer of hope in President Trump’s appointment as special envoy to the UK: Mark Burnett, a British TV producer. Burnett, who created the Apprentice series which launched Trump to fame in the media, is married to Roma Downey, an actress and producer who was born and raised in Derry.
Keir Starmer, the UK PM, recently met Burnett at Downing Street. “While Mark Burnett is the UK’s economic envoy from the United States, he will have an interest in Northern Ireland. So we hope that he would pay some attention to here,” remarked Stephen. “A Derry girl always has an influence on her husband.”
Concerns are felt across the province after Trump announced a 25% tax on steel and aluminium entering the US to be introduced from March 12, 2025. “This is a big deal: the beginning of making America rich again,” Trump said. “Our nation requires steel and aluminium to be made in America, not in foreign lands,” adding that the tariffs would be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”. Northern Ireland has no steel manufacturers but it has a cluster of service centres in the Mid Ulster region that work with steel and create intermediate goods. Tariffs could potentially make them uncompetitive in the US market.
“A lot of our internationally-owned, including US-owned, manufacturers are servicing markets in the UK, Europe and the Middle East,” Stephen Kelly said. “There are also lots of home grown engineering firms who sell directly to customers in the US and elsewhere and they are unsure what [steel tariffs] could mean for them.”
In mid-February, 2025, NI manufacturers held a crisis summit to explore what the tariffs might mean for their business. “There’s a balance between keeping under the radar and having somebody represent our opinions,” said one Mid Ulster exporter to the US who participated. “It’s probably better just to keep under the radar here for a while and see what happens. You don’t want to be attracting undue attention because at the minute – it’s like avoiding eye contact with the teacher.”
Businesses are waiting to see how the EU and UK will respond to Trump’s tariffs. During his first term in 2018, Trump introduced a 25% tariff on steel which pushed prices up in EU markets. “The EU became fearful that Europe would be a dumping ground for steel that suddenly became available because it was uncompetitive to send to the United States,” explained Stephen. “In order to protect European steel production, including the UK, Europe applied a 25% tariff to foreign imports.” In March 2022, the US under the Biden administration removed those tariffs.
Businesses across the board who import to the US are worried about further tariffs. According to Northern Ireland Economic Trade Statistics from 2023, the US is NI’s top export partner within the Rest of the World (ROW) category, representing £1.9bn. Ulster Carpets, for example, who supply carpets for hotels and casinos across the US, announced “record turnover in the US contract market” in the financial year of 2022/2023.
“The US is Northern Ireland’s second largest export market for manufactured goods,” said a spokesperson for Invest NI. “It remains unclear what the new US administration’s trade policy will be towards both the UK and EU and any resulting implications on trade for Northern Ireland. We continue to monitor the situation.”
During his first term, President Trump targeted consumer goods, including Irish whiskies and French cheese; the EU responded in kind. Trump has pledged to “definitely” place tariffs on imports from the EU due to a trade deficit with the region that was over $200 billion in 2024. “[The EU] takes almost nothing and we take everything from them,” he said, describing the deficit as an “atrocity”.
Despite Trump’s pledge to introduce tariffs “without exceptions or exemptions”, he seems willing to cut the UK slack due to its more balanced trade position with the US. “UK is out of line but… I think that one can be worked out,” the President said.
Jonathan Reynolds, the UK Business Secretary, said he had “constructive conversations with key people in the Trump administration” including Mark Burnett in recognition of the UK’s “different” relationship with the US. This stance may work to the advantage of NI business, said Darragh Cullen of Edge Innovate: “In the North, we’re probably a bit more secure because we’ll soon play the UK card in terms of tariffs. If he’s going to tariff Europe, we’ll go that way.”
Stephen Kelly concurs. “If the European Union is hit with tariffs, the UK has a competitive advantage. Northern Ireland is the best place in the UK to have a manufacturing business as a result of our post-Brexit arrangements.” However, tariffs pose a particular threat to the Republic of Ireland which exported $58bn of products (predominately pharmaceutical), representing 27% of the country’s total exports in 2023. Tariffs on the EU could also have a knockback in NI, said Stephen Kelly. “Our goods freely circulate in the EU market because of our dual market access. Some of our components are treated as EU components.”
In the event of a global trade war, there will be no winners. “Nobody wins in war, whether it’s in trade or in physical battles over territory. Everybody loses,” Stephen said. “Whether it’s a challenge to one nation like China, or a unilateral approach to all nations and all territories, those things have an impact on us. More importantly, they have a big impact on US domestic consumers. They elected Trump on the basis that he was cutting prices but in reality this is going to make everything more expensive.”
Right now, businesses have no idea what is going to happen next. “The only thing that needs improved for us is the level of uncertainty,” Darragh Cullen said. A spokesperson for the Department for the Economy described the US as “an important market and the Department will continue to advocate on behalf of investment in, and trade with, the north”. As for the decision to appoint a new US economic envoy to Northern Ireland? That, said the spokesperson, “is a matter for the US administration”.