U.S. advises Ireland on exports

This was the message brought to Dublin last week by Philip Byrd, head of the American Importers’ Association, who came to Dublin with encouraging news and some hard advice for the Irish.
Byrd said that in the first quarter of 2004, Irish exports to the U.S. had increased by 22 percent, which, if sustained, would lead to Ireland moving into the top 10 countries importing to the U.S.
And, despite media reports of anti-American rhetoric in Ireland, Byrd said he did not believe it to be a significant issue and that relations between business people have never been better. What criticisms he did hear on his visit, he said, were focused on the U.S. administration, not the country itself.
“The problem Ireland has, is infrastructure,” Byrd warned. “I did not see the infrastructure I had expected. What I saw was the richest poor country in Europe.”
Byrd said the main road between Dublin and Cork was just that, a main road, and not a highway that he feels is necessary to make swift transport between Ireland’s first and second cities.
“There are insufficient telephone lines, insufficient roads, insufficient airports,” he said. Even basic needs like parking, Byrd said, were not adequate.
“That’s government,” he continued. “It’s the government that must supply those things, and until it does, Irish exporters will suffer.”
“The Chinese have left the Irish in the dirt — China has really concentrated on building the country up on an export basis: airports, bank loans, roads,” he said. China’s government has made that country’s export market a central policy.
Byrd had a further concern related to the businesses themselves seeking a greater part of the U.S. market.
Quality control is one of the first things many American importers will look for, Byrd said, when they pay a visit to a potential exporter’s business Web site. A prominent section should deal with quality control, he said.
“Exporters are not getting their Web sites right either,” Byrd added. “There needs to be an end point,” he said, saying that a visit to a company Web site should be like an equation: what does the company sell, how will it get the goods to you, and how to contact the key people.
A visitor to a Web site ought to be able to ask, “Give me your best price on 5,000 widgets” and have an answer as easily as possible.
Seven out of every 10 U.S. dollars’ worth of exported goods from Ireland to the U.S. is labeled under the broad umbrella of chemicals – pharmaceuticals, medical drugs, industrial chemicals, vitamins and cosmetics.
Byrd, speaking soon after his return from his first trip to Ireland, was enthusiastic about the country and its prospects, having clearly been given a warm welcome. His Dublin seminar was well-attended, he said, and the media showed good interest in the issues he was talking about.
The Irish Exporters’ Association (www.irishexporters.ie) welcomed Byrd’s comments, and the president of the association, Michael Counahan, said that with a shot at increasing its export market generally, and to America specifically, Ireland’s priority should be enhanced and cheaper telecommunications.
The American Importers’ Association’s has a Web site at: www.americanimporters.org.