The value of medical and pharmaceutical exports to the US surged in February as businesses anticipated the introduction of prohibitive tariffs by the White House.
The value of unadjusted goods exports rose €8.7 billion or 54.3% year-on-year in February, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
Exports totaled €24.6 billion in February, up from €15.9 billion a year earlier. On a seasonally adjusted basis, exports totaled €25.5 billion, up 2.8% or €700.9 million from January.
Seasonally adjusted imports rose 14.8% or €1.6 billion month-on-month to €12.6 billion, or 14.6% or €1.5 billion year-on-year to €11.9 billion unadjusted.
The value of exports of medical and pharmaceutical products rose €9.2 billion or 146% to €15.6 billion from February 2024. Pharma imports, meanwhile, increased €922 million or 84.2% to €2 billion.
Overall, exports to the US increased €8.7 billion or 210.5% compared with the same month last year, rising from €4.2 billion.
US President Donald Trump has temporarily postponed most of the tariffs on goods manufactured in the EU that he announced in early April.
Pharmaceuticals were not subject to the tariffs, but Trump has pledged that he will tax pharma products coming into the US in the “not too distant future."
Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said: “We don’t make our own drugs, our own pharmaceuticals – we don’t make our own drugs anymore.
“The drug companies are in Ireland, in lots of other places [like] China.
"And all I have to do is impose a tariff... the more, the faster they move here.”
Many of the top US pharma groups like Pfizer and AbbVie have manufacturing operations in Ireland, heavily contributing to pharma exports of €44.4 billion last year.
Medical and pharma products accounted for 63.2% of exports and 17.2% of imports in February.
"Exports to the US increased by 210.5% (€8.7 billion) in February 2025 compared with the same month last year, rising from €4.2 billion to €12.9 billion," said Jane Burmanje, statistician in the international trade in goods division of the CSO.
"Exports to the US accounted for 52.5% of total export trade in February 2025 while they accounted for 26.1% of total exports in the same month last year."
*This article was originally published on BusinessPlus.ie.
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