Trump’s trade adviser calls Ireland ‘tax haven’

PETER NAVARRO, a trade adviser to US President Donald Trump, has described Ireland as a “tax haven”.

Navarro, director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, was speaking in an interview on Fox Business News, regarding Trump’s announcement that the US government will loan Eastman Kodak $765m to develop ingredients for generic drugs.

The loan will help Kodak, better known for selling cameras, launch Kodak Pharmaceuticals, which will make ingredients used in pharmaceutical products.

When asked by show host Maria Bartiromo about the move by the Trump administration, Navarro said that it would be “the beginning of American independence from our pharmaceutical dependence on foreign countries”.

Navarro said Trump had told his office the US needed to bring pharmaceutical supply chains back to the US “months ago”.

He said Trump followed this up by signing an executive order allowing the Development Finance Corporation, which provides financing for private development projects, to finance bringing pharmaceutical supply chains back to the US.

Explaining the supply chain, and where Ireland fits into it, Navarro said: “So the way this whole thing came together is, we have on our board in our office, there are three columns. One is what companies can make the key starting materials for pharmaceuticals.

“That’s the ones we’re most heavily dependent on. And then there’s the pharmaceutical ingredients. Then there’s the finished dosage form.

“And the problem is that, for the key starting materials, the pollution havens around the world, like China and India, get those. The API [active pharmaceutical ingredient] is labour intensive, so we have got sweatshops. And then for the finished dosage form, tax havens like Ireland grab them.”

In May, Trump singled out Ireland as he vowed to bring global pharmaceutical production back to the US.

Asked about what kind of financial incentives he would offer US pharmaceutical companies to re-shore so the country was no longer dependent on China for supplies, Trump said: “It’s not only China, you take a look at Ireland. They make our drugs. Everybody makes our drugs except us.

“We’re bringing that whole supply chain back. Nobody has to tell me to do it, I’ve been talking about that for years.”