Written Evidence received by Ambassador Dan Mulhall for the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s inquiry into Northern Ireland and the EU Referendum (EUN0011)

Dear Mr Robertson,

Further to queries raised by Gavin Robinson MP during my recent appearance before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee as part of your inquiry into Northern Ireland and the EU Referendum, I enclose detailed statistics from the Central Statistics Office on bilateral trade between Ireland and the UK. Links to the sources of these statistics are also enclosed.

I trust that this information accurately responds to Mr Robinson’s queries. If there is any further information I can be helpful with, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Dan Mulhall

Ambassador of Ireland

Central Statistics Office (CSO) data for bilateral trade between the UK and Ireland

CSO data for bilateral trade (Goods and Services) between the UK and Ireland for 2014 are as follows:

Jan - Dec 2014: Goods Exports to UK

Goods Imports from UK Total (Goods)

Services Exports to UK Services Imports from UK Total (Services)

€13.428bn

€17.27bn

€30.698bn

€20. 176bn

€11.361bn

€31.537bn

Total bilateral trade for 2014 €62.235bn, equivalent to €1.196bn per week

CSO data for bilateral trade (Goods) between the UK and Ireland for 2015 are as follows:

Jan -Dec 2015

Goods Exports to GB+NI Goods Imports from GB+NI Total (Goods)

€15.485bn

€17.830bn

{€33.315bn

Total bilateral trade in goods increased by 8.5% between 2014 and 2015.

Data for trade in Services takes some time to compile and CSO data for 2015 is not yet available. 2014 data is the latest available. Bilateral trade in Services increased by 14.6% between 2013 and 2014. Even if we were to see no increase in Services in 2015, bilateral trade would total €64.852bn (combining Goods data for 2015 and Services data for 2014). Based on recent growth rates in Services exports in particular (10.79% increase 2012- 2013; 14.34% increase 2013- 2014), one can safely assume that total bilateral trade between the UK and Ireland exceeded €65bn in 2015.

Sources:

Goods Trade 2014:

http://www.cso. ie/en/media/ csoie/releasespublications/documents/ extemaltrade/2014/trade dee2014.pdf

Services Trade 2014: http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/its/internationa1tradeinservices2014/

Goods Trade 2015: http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/gei/goodsexportsandimportsdecembe r2015/ - Table 4 refers

18 February 2016