EU-US trade deal top of foreign agenda
The EU-US trade deal will top the agenda at a meeting of the foreign affairs committee today.
Up to 4,000 jobs could be created here if the agreement, the largest bilateral one if its kind, gets the green light.
The fifth round of negotiations for the agreement took place in the US last week and the American Chamber of Commerce will bring the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee up to speed today on the challenges faced by the deal so far.
"We've already seen the benefit of US investment in to Ireland since 2010," said Chair of the committee is Fine Gael TD Pat Breen.
"14% of US investment into Europe has gone into Ireland - and given the fact that we're only 1% of the EU population, that's a significant investment already."
"Exports from our country [to the US] are €23bn, imports are €6bn, so the balance is very much in our favour."
"As a result … we could have in the region of 4,000 extra jobs into this country."
He said today's meeting was an opportunity for the American Chamber of Commerce to outline the current stage of the talks.
