Industry Update: US Citizens Rush for Irish Passports, China Expands Freight Rail, and Trump Targets EU with Tariffs
SURGE IN US CITIZENS APPLYING FOR IRISH PASSPORT
Over 30,000 Americans applied for Irish citizenship last year – a 10pc increase year-on-year with many citing political concerns and access to the European Union (EU) as a reason for their move.
The surge in 2024 comes agaisnt the backdrop of the election of US President Donald Trump with November of last year seeing the biggest uptick in applicants with 3,692.
Although only making up 2pc of the total citizenship applications there has been a steady rise in American applicants in recent years.
President of the Irish Cultural Centre of Greater Boston Martina said that the surge in applications is a mix of Americans seeking to explore their heritage and political or practical reasons.
“Some of it is just their deep affinity to Ireland. You cannot underestimate that,” Curtin said. “Other people, it’s just for practical reasons. They see the value of having that Irish passport—it’s a gateway to the EU.”
“Third-level education is much less expensive in Ireland compared to the United States,” Curtin said.
CHINA ANNOUNCES GREATER CONNECTIVITY WITH EUROPE FREIGHT TRAIN
China has announced the construction of a new railway tunnel to further connectivity between China and Europe.
The route, announce by The State Council of the People’s Republic of China, is a 602m tunnel under construction along the railway line connecting Suifenhe and the China-Russia border line in Suifenhe, which is situated northeast of China’s Heilongjiang Province. The date for completion is set to be around May 2025.
The proposed route is set to replace three existing 120-year-old tunnels. Suifenhe Port is a key trading entrepot on the eastern China-Europe freight train corridor. It handles 900 China-Europe freight train trips and 88,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) per year.
The China-Europe freight was lunched in 2011, whichh aims to connect cities like Chongqing and Duisburg. It’s progression has led to a great expansion of routes to include cities such as Chengdu, Wuhan, and Yiwu to European destinations such as Warsaw, Madrid, London, and Moscow.
The freight has supplemented existing trade initiatives including The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) whichh aims to enhance trade routes with member of nations along the historic Silk Road route.
In related news, in October 2024, China Railway 14th Bureau Group (CRCC14) announced that the tunnel for Beijing Subway Line 17 had been fully drilled, following the completion of its middle section.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES SWEEPING NEW TARIFFS ON EUROPEAN UNION
President Donald Trump has vowed to implement tariffs in a reciprocal manner against countries he believes are hostile to the United States.
The escalation in rhetoric could have an impact on inflation levels as the cost of importing goods is set to rise with the imposition of levies.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Mr Trumpwas flanked by his commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and other officials when he called out US allies saying they are "worse than our enemies" on trade.
His ire was directed at the European Union (EU) with the ministration vowing to impose swift levies on a c country by country basis with a particular emphasis on so-called “discriminatory” tariffs such as value added taxes or VAT.
Priority will be placed on nations America has a high trade deficit with.
Ireland has a trade surplus of €30b with the US making it America’s seventh biggest deficit nation. It is also a key European base for US medicine production with pharmaceuticals accounting for 30pc of all Ireland's exports were to the US and around 80pc of total exports.
Peter Navarro Trump’s trade advisor called out nations who “attack” US markets through their exports: "Major exporting nations of the world attack our markets with punishing tariffs and even more punishing non-tariff barriers."