Donald Trump’s tariffs revelations shows how America is “shooting itself in the foot” according to the head of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary.
Yesterday, the US President announced sweeping tariffs on foreign imports with goods from from the European Union to be soon charged a 20% import tariff.
The Ryanair boss said US tariffs will ''deeply damage the global economy” but said Americans would suffer the most as protectionism has failed as an economic policy as he told Newstalk.
“Isolationism doesn’t work,” adding ''If isolationism worked, North Korea would be the world’s greatest economy.'' He countered by saying “Free trade works.”
“An awful lot of American companies are going to be suffering significant damage because they manufacture a lot of goods in Europe and import them back into the US.
“And I have little doubt these idiotic tariffs are doomed to fail as well.”
Mr O’Leary encouraged reciprocal tariffs by the European Union adding that it was “inevitable” that America would face some kind of retaliation.
He encouraged greater growth by focussing on issues closer to home that can help to maintain and revitalise the economy.
“I would start there with the Dublin Airport cap; we can’t afford to be shooting ourselves in the foot with these kinds of idiotic measures when Trump is doing such damage to the wider economy.”
When asked about the impact on Ryanair, Mr O’Leary said “an awful lot of aircraft from America” forms part of their stable so extra costs will certainly be passed onto travellers:
“If the tariff wars spread to aircraft or aircraft parts, then clearly it will lead to higher costs for airlines and probably higher fares for our customers”.
