Trump says Ireland 'cheats' the US in White House meeting with prime minister

Trump says Ireland 'cheats' the US in White House meeting with prime minister.
US President Donald Trump has added Ireland to the list of countries he says are taking advantage of his own as he welcomed Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin to the White House. Trump has been sparring with US allies and adversaries over trade, slapping tariffs on imports from countries from Canada to China and beyond, creating major diplomatic rifts. During an appearance with Martin in front of reporters, Trump repeated his claim that the European Union was created to take advantage of the US. He specifically referred to the concentration of US pharmaceutical companies in Ireland, a longstanding situation grounded in the country's notoriously lenient corporation tax laws.

Martin countered Trump's allegations by insisting that the two countries' trade relationship is a two-way street. He added that Ireland's two major airlines buy more aircraft from Boeing than any other foreign customer and that hundreds of Irish companies were based in America, creating thousands of jobs. He said that he understands where Trump is coming from, fully, but thinks it's a relationship that they can develop and that will endure into the future.