SPEECH BY MINISTER DONOHOE

I was mentioned in a March 2018 speech by the Irish Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, which covered globalisation, Brexit, Mercosur and the economy. The full speech is available below.

Speech made on 15th March 2018

“It is a pleasure for me to be here with you tonight to represent the government in the Celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day in Argentina.

Thank you to Matthew Moran, Richard Fenning and Orla Treacy for leading the Irish Business Network Argentina (IBNA) and helping it grow.

Thank you to the representatives of Enterprise Ireland who came from Brazil to be with us tonight – Conor Fahy (Director for Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS) and Melissa Feddis (South America Manager).

I would like to begin by encouraging the Irish Business Network, as a body, to continue its excellent work in fostering and developing trade ties between Argentina and Ireland that lead to mutual economic benefits for both nations.

Argentina and Ireland face a whole new set of challenges in a rapidly changing international political and economic environment. The certainty about global trade and politics is changing. The final magnitude of the change is yet to be determined, but change is happening.

Amid this global volatility, Argentina is successfully positioning itself as a significant regional and global actor. Important milestones included holding the WTO Ministerial Conference here last year, attended by my colleagues, Ministers Pat Breen and Andrew Doyle, as well as the G20 Presidency of Argentina this year.

For our part, thanks to the hard work of the Irish people and the right political choices, Ireland’s economic recovery is heavily embedded.

Our priority now is to ensure that the enormous economic progress we have made in recent years is combined with a greater push for social recovery so that the fruits of our success are widely shared by all our citizens and in all regions of the country.

As many of you will be aware, St Patrick’s Day represents an important opportunity for the Irish Government not only to represent Irish business abroad, but also to meet some of the key players in this business.

Ultimately, the benefits that come to Ireland from international trade come from its dedication and its hard work.

The role of the Irish Government, and mine as Minister for Finance and Advertising & Reform, is to make it as easy as possible for you to establish your business, to grow your business, and not put any obstacles in the way of your business’s success.

Shared Outlook

Ireland and Argentina are different in many ways, the Argentine population is almost nine times larger than ours. Only Buenos Aires has a population more than half that of Ireland.

However, we also have a lot in common.

Over the years, many thousands of Irish have gone to Argentina and I think the fact that Argentina is home to one of the largest Irish communities in the world is a testament not only to Argentine hospitality, but also to a shared understanding and vision of the world.

I think it is this shared view of the world and a similar view of life that has led to so many close relations between our countries; be it business, as with so many here in this room or the personal connections that have been formed over the years.

Ireland and Argentina now share a common perspective on the volume of trade and the importance of openness and engagement with the global economy.

It is fair to say that this perspective has been recorded in forty years of Irish foreign and economic policy. But it is clear that President Macri and his government have developed an ambitious agenda based on openness, trade and reforms.

The external changes that the Argentine government is responding to are regularly described as globalization.

Globalization

There is a wide range of opinions and arguments about what exactly globalization means. Without going into these debates, I would say I think it’s a useful term that manages to capture how a range of complex forces around the world are bringing the world closer.

As successful business people, you are probably more aware than most about the range of challenges and opportunities that can arise from globalization. More customers can also mean more competitors.

Balancing risks and opportunities is what international business is all about.

From my point of view, globalization is a force that lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, laid the foundations for our economic prosperity, and created a safer world. But it’s also not a panacea for all problems.

It can also be a desruptive force. Particularly when combined with the incredible rate of technological progress that the world is experiencing, globalization can often be painted as something people should be concerned about.

This anxiety has been a significant factor in many of the reactions to the status quo we have seen in recent years, including more recently the election result in Italy – the mother country of many Argentines.

My opinion is that populism will never bring people the real remedies they seek for the current problems of rapid change and economic insecurity. However, we should be less quick to dismiss the very real anxieties that generated them.

Nor should we be deluded that the globalization that has transformed lives and lifted millions out of poverty is irreversible.

I do not need to remind an audience in Argentina that it was a major beneficiary of the first era of globalization in the 19th century, that nothing is predetermined in human affairs or with political institutions and that progress and decline are two sides of the same currency.

The first era of globalization came to a tragic end in Campos de Flanders with World War I. It took generations after that for our current global era to come true.

We cannot be complacent and, in fact, there are real challenges to our current global system. We need to make the case for him and defend him at a time when his enemies are gaining strength.

An Open Economy

That is why Ireland is committed to staying in an open economy. We made a choice to focus on international trade as one of the pillars of Ireland’s economic strategy.

While this approach requires careful management of the vagaries of international trade as Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform, I am deeply aware of the contribution international trade brings to Ireland and that is why I continue to emphasise the need to support it as much as possible.

Mercosur

This global perspective is one of the reasons why Ireland is fully committed to the ongoing work to reach a trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU.

This agreement will provide an opportunity for more than 400 million people in the EU and almost 300 million in Mercosur countries to improve their trade relations.

Ireland remains fully committed to the Mercosur negotiation, especially in view of the important economic gains expected for both sides from a comprehensive, ambitious and balanced EU-Mercosur agreement.

While we have concerns about agriculture and the potential impact on the EU beef sector, I am confident that we will finally reach this comprehensive and ambitious trade agreement. And this trade agreement will contribute to future prosperity in all EU and Mercosur member states.

Changing Minds

In fact, convincing people about globalization can be difficult. It can be very difficult to combat a fundamental misunderstanding about international trade, because it may require the public to change a preconceived notion that they themselves may not think too much about.

The idea of globalization as damage, and trade as a threat, is seductive. It takes economic insecurity and points to the “other” as the cause.

This is always a very attractive answer when reality is usually significantly more complicated.

I recognize that trying to combat this perception only with numbers and statistics does not always work. What’s needed is to put some human faces in these numbers.

Whether it’s the Irish businessman who is now selling his product in a new market of 500 million strong people or an Irish company now hiring Argentine workers at an Argentine factory, the real benefits of trade need to be made real for people.

And we also need to recognize that not all people will benefit from all forms of trade immediately.

But every citizen is also a consumer. International trade and globalization reduce the cost of goods and services and offer new opportunities for business.

Brexit  

From Ireland’s point of view, any discussion of globalisation and trade should include reference to Brexit.

Britain’s exit from the European Union will be a turning point in our relationship and I would like to speak briefly today about what Brexit means for Ireland and the EU.

First, and without getting stuck in every detail available, I want to emphasize the scale of the challenge that Brexit brings.

Although Ireland’s trade with Britain fell from more than 50% in 1973 to 17% today, they are still our only major trading partner.

Estimates vary somewhat, but more than 100 million border crossings take place between Ireland and the UK every year. The Irish cross the border for holidays, for university, for work, and even for marriage.

So we share not only commerce, but language, history and culture.

We also share the hard peace process achieved in Northern Ireland.

Brexit negotiations between the EU and the UK are ongoing, but I can confirm that Ireland’s priorities remain unchanged.

We must protect the peace process. We must ensure that there is no introduction of a hard border. We must maintain the Common Travel Area between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

And finally, we must ensure that there are effective transitional arrangements that lead to the closest possible trade relationship between the UK and the EU.

This challenge can be faced, but we have no illusions about the complexity and difficulty that must be overcome.

Conclusion

Globalization is an incredible force, but it needs to be managed carefully. Neither the government nor business should assume that everything will work out. We can’t even take that for granted.

For Ireland, a crucial national challenge is Brexit.

But despite the scale of the challenge, we’re not facing it alone.

Our EU membership has been central to the success of our small open, commercial and competitive economy. Joining the Single Market and customs union is a central element of our Economic Strategy. Access has allowed our economy to prosper and has helped a lot in attracting business.

It gave us full access to EU trade agreements with other major markets and the ability to engage in global free trade that we could not have alone.

The EU is a home that we help build and while there are many challenges, the Irish Government is confident that we can work together as 27 countries to deal with all these challenges.

While Brexit undoubtedly poses challenges to the Irish economy, there will also be some opportunities and the Government will work to maximise as many as possible.

The world will continue to change and our role as Government and leaders is to ensure that whatever challenges we are ready to face and overcome them.

In conclusion, I would again like to wish you good luck in your work to further improve our bilateral economic ties and ensure the continued support of our Government in this regard. I look forward to meeting you in our networking session later, but before that I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

End.”