Europe should not get into trade war with US, says Sinn Féin
Europe needs to take a breath and not get sucked into a trade war with the US, Sinn Féin has said.
Finance spokesman Pearse Doherty was reacting to the ESRI report that warned of the potential economic implications of a damaging trade war.
Speaking at Stormont, where dozens of senior Sinn Féin elected representatives from both sides of the border had gathered, Mr Doherty said the ESRI report was “helpful” in setting out the various scenarios.
“The only way to win a trade war is not to be involved in the first instance,” he said.
“And I would hope that what we need now is discussions between the American administration and the European Union, to recognise that this is not in the advantage of any citizens, whether they’re European or American, to actually have this type of reciprocal trade war.
“And I think that Europe needs to take a breath and not react knee jerk in relation to anything that may come down the line from the American administration.”
He said the paper also supported Sinn Féin’s position that the new global economic uncertainty should encourage investment to support capacity in the Irish economy.
“We need to build up the capacity in terms of our own domestic sector, our infrastructure housing, obviously being a major issue that many of the companies, both multinational and national, mentioned to us, and the need to invest in our infrastructure to make sure that we remain competitive in light of any international events, some that are outside of our control.”
“I will say this, as an Irish woman, that Irish men are decent and kind.”
At the same gathering Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald ruled herself out of a run for the presidency.
Asked to comment on speculation that she might be a candidate she said she would not be running.
“On the presidential election, we’ve just commenced, really our discussions around what we might do again.
“We’re speaking with others, other parties, and there are options available to us to run a Sinn Féin candidate, to back another, and we haven’t concluded on that.”
The Sinn Féin leadership was also asked about the boycott of the White House on St Patrick’s Day and President Donald Trump’s description of Conor McGregor as his favourite Irishman and the country’s greatest fighter.
Ms McDonald said it was up to the White House to decide who it invited in, but said Mr Trump ought to have known that the greatest Irish fighter was Katie Taylor who fights in Madison Square Garden soon.
“I will say this, as an Irish woman, that Irish men are decent and kind.
“They make great brothers and fathers and husbands and partners, and I know that any kind of negative portrayal of our men or our boys is something that we do not welcome.”
The Sinn Féin leader also set out the party’s position in respect of the latest attempt to resolve the row over Dáil speaking rights.
She said she expected the Government to reject her party’s amendment to next Tuesday’s Dáil vote on the issue.
“The reason why this has been such a potent issue for all of us, not just in Sinn Féin all across the opposition benches, is that we know that it is absolutely essential that this Government is held to account and that the Irish electorate know that Irish democracy is being respected and that you cannot have the Government that simply now wants to dominate the Government benches and blunt and disrupt the efforts of opposition.
“That’s not an acceptable thing, and it shouldn’t be an acceptable thing to anybody across Irish society.
“So we’ve entered our amendment.
“We are going to face the Government down on this I’ve been speaking to other opposition leaders this morning.
“We will be talking in the course of the weekend.
“We’ll meet early next week, I imagine on Monday, just to finally decide a joint approach to this.
“But it’s a very serious matter.”