Ireland looks to expand trade with Korea in updated strategy

Ireland announced its updated Asia-Pacific strategy on Tuesday at the Global Ireland Summit, aiming to increase trade and investment from Korea and provide more opportunities for Koreans who want to come to Ireland.

Micheál Martin, Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, speaks during Tuesday's Global Ireland Summit at Dublin Castle. [IRELAND DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS]

DUBLIN — Ireland announced its updated Asia-Pacific strategy on Tuesday at the Global Ireland Summit, aiming to increase trade and investment from Korea and provide more opportunities for Koreans who want to come to Ireland.

“We had set a specific target for 100 billion euros [$106 billion] of trade with the Asia-Pacific region, and this has already been exceeded two years ahead of the planned date of 2025,” Micheál Martin, Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, said during a round table interview at the summit.

“We want to deepen that, and that will support our country's ambitions to expand across the Asia-Pacific.”

Although a specific target number wasn't announced, the updated strategy aims for more growth.

Two-way trade between Ireland and Asia-Pacific was 120 billion euros ($127 billion) as of this October. Korea imported goods worth $1.05 billion from Ireland and exported goods worth $609 million in the same period.

Ireland's top exports to Korea are immunological products, medicaments and parts for assistive devices. However, it aims to find new opportunities in food by increasing beef and seafood exports to Korea.

To engage in more discussion, an Irish trade mission will visit Korea from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 to meet President Yoon Suk Yeol and other organizations such as the Korea International Trade Association and Invest Seoul.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar will lead the trade mission, focusing on Korea as it will be the one annual mission led by the prime minister.

Ministers of enterprise, trade and employment, agriculture, food and the marine, further and higher education, research, innovation and science will accompany the visit, along with government organizations such as Enterprise Ireland.

Although the European Union and Ireland are taking a de-risking approach to China, the revised Asia-Pacific plan also included the country.

“There may be issues where we differ, but we won't be afraid to raise those issues,” Martin said. “But also, we will focus on the issues where we share common ground [such as] climate change, trade and economy.”

Apart from attracting trade into Ireland, the updated strategy also aims to open more opportunities for Koreans who wish to come to the country.

Although it increased the working holiday visa quota given to Koreans from 600 to 800 in August, the revised Asia-Pacific plan will allow more quota increases.

The number of government of Ireland scholarships given to international students who aren't from the European Union or European Economic Area will also increase.

Being a small country with a population of 5 million, with a 16-year high of 141,600 immigrants entering the country between April 2022 and 2023, housing shortages and higher housing prices are pending issues.

“We have capacity, although it's creating an upward pressure,” Tánaiste Martin said.

“We already had a housing problem as our population grew, and it's a big social issue for the young people in the position who can't afford to buy houses. We have been providing sufficient social housing, so we are catching up, and we've made very good progress in the last two years on the housing front.”

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]