Ireland's Food Industries would be Worst Hit by a hard Brexit

Ireland's economy has become an important trading hub for many businesses. Multinational companies especially have an important role in Ireland as 90% of exports are shipped by multinational companies.

The Economist argues that Ireland has a dual economy where one side relies on foreign direct investment and the other is the traditional working jobs.

With the looming threat of Brexit, there has been a significant increase in the amount of firms that want to make Ireland home. Technology firms especially have showed special interest in Ireland that has a large english speaking population and low-tax rate and access to the markets of both Britain and the EU.

However, with the increase in large technology based businesses coming due to Brexit, Ireland's domestic industries have begun to shrink. Only 13% of goods exported are going to Britain. The Economist also argues that with the growing foreign direct investment in Ireland by these large multinational firms, the food industry in Ireland is going to take such a large hit that the FDI will not make up for the shortcomings domestically. A hard Brexit would hurt exports, Irish jobs and large tariffs. This hard Brexit would hurt rural Ireland more than the cities like Dublin and would continue to cause shortfalls in the housing market that would be exacerbated by the influx of economic migrants looking for jobs.

The Economist argues that a soft Brexit would be more beneficial for both Ireland and Britain as they both benefit from each other being strong. A soft Brexit would also allow both parts of the economy to benefit off of each other and not completely hurt the system. It will be interesting to see which kind of Brexit takes place and how this could affect Ireland. There are both positives and negatives to both scenarios.





http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21720313-tale-two-economies-irelands-food-industries-would-be-worst-hit-hard