US-Ireland Trade Data 2025-26: Imports, Exports, Trade Balance & Key Insights

Ireland is a small country with an outsized role in American trade. Despite a population smaller than that of Los Angeles, Ireland ranked as the United States' 8th-largest trading partner in goods and services in 2025, with combined two-way trade of roughly $288 billion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). That figure puts Ireland in the same league as Switzerland and Taiwan — far larger economies by population and GDP.

Overview of US-Ireland Trade in 2025-26

The US-Ireland trade relationship is dominated by a handful of high-value industries: pharmaceuticals, medical devices, organic chemicals, and aircraft. This concentration is the main reason the trade data looks unusual compared with most bilateral relationships -  a small number of product categories account for the overwhelming majority of flows in both directions.

On a goods-and-services basis (BEA balance-of-payments accounting, which nets out Ireland's large services surplus with the US against the US pharmaceutical and chemical import surplus), the US exported $120.1 billion to Ireland and imported $168.3 billion from Ireland in 2025.

*BEA does not publish a single consistent 2024 export/import split on the same balance-of-payments basis used for the 2025 figures above; the deficit figures are directly comparable year over year. Source: BEA, U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, Annual releases.

Two things stand out. First, the overall goods-and-services deficit with Ireland grew nearly 50% year over year. Second — and this is where monthly Census data adds useful texture — the deficit was extremely front-loaded. BEA's monthly releases show the goods deficit with Ireland spiking above $11 billion in May 2025, then narrowing sharply to roughly $2.6–3.2 billion by July and October, before ending the year at $2.0 billion in December. That pattern is consistent with US importers and pharmaceutical distributors accelerating shipments from Ireland earlier in 2025, likely in anticipation of tariff or trade-policy changes on pharmaceutical products, followed by a pullback in the second half of the year.

US-Ireland Trade Balance in 2025-26

The US-Ireland trade balance is one of the most-discussed figures in the relationship, and it looks very different depending on which measure you use — which is exactly why businesses researching this topic should always check the methodology behind any number they cite.

Goods and services combined (BEA balance-of-payments basis): The US ran a $48.18 billion deficit with Ireland in 2025, up from $32.48 billion in 2024.

Goods only (Census basis): The picture is starker. On this narrower measure, which strips out Ireland's large services trade with the US, the US goods deficit with Ireland was $114.2 billion in 2025, up from $86.7 billion in 2024 — the 6th-largest goods deficit the US recorded with any single trading partner that year.

Services (Irish CSO perspective): From Ireland's side, the picture flips. Ireland's Central Statistics Office reports that Ireland runs a large deficit in services trade with the US — driven mainly by royalty and licensing payments that Irish subsidiaries of US multinationals send back to their American parent companies — while running a large surplus in goods trade with the US.

Why the gap between the goods-only deficit ($114.2B) and the combined deficit ($48.18B)? Pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing by US multinationals' Irish subsidiaries generates enormous physical goods exports back to the US, but those same subsidiaries pay substantial royalties and licensing fees to their US parent companies, which show up as a US services export (and an Irish services import) that partially offsets the goods imbalance. This is the single most important thing to understand about US-Ireland trade data: goods flows and services flows move in opposite directions, and headline "trade deficit" figures can mean very different things depending on which one a source is citing.

US Exports to Ireland

What does the US export to Ireland? The largest categories are aircraft and aerospace equipment, pharmaceutical preparations, industrial machinery, and electrical/electronic equipment. Ireland's imports from the US are shaped heavily by its role as a European base for aircraft leasing and by intra-company pharmaceutical manufacturing inputs.

Based on the most recent full-year product breakdown (2024, UN Comtrade/Irish trade data), Ireland's imports from the United States were led by:

Total US goods exports to Ireland in 2025 were approximately $19.3 billion on a goods-only (Comtrade) basis — a fraction of the roughly $134 billion in goods the US imported from Ireland the same year, which is the core driver of the goods trade imbalance discussed above.

Ireland Exports to US

Ireland exports to US are concentrated even more heavily than US exports to Ireland, with pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals alone accounting for the majority of value. Ireland hosts manufacturing operations for many of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, and a large share of what those facilities produce is shipped to the US market.

Based on the latest full-year product data (2024, UN Comtrade), Ireland's leading exports to the US were:

• Pharmaceutical products — approximately $33.1 billion

• Organic chemicals — approximately $25.1 billion

• Optical, photographic, technical & medical apparatus — approximately $8.3 billion

• Essential oils, perfumes, cosmetics & toiletries — approximately $4.2 billion

• Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers — approximately $1.9 billion

• Electrical and electronic equipment — approximately $1.3 billion

• Aircraft and spacecraft — approximately $1.2 billion

• Beverages, spirits and vinegar — approximately $1.0 billion

• Dairy products, eggs and honey — approximately $0.7 billion

Ireland's importance in these categories is structural rather than incidental. Nine of the world's ten largest pharmaceutical companies operate manufacturing sites in Ireland, and the country's chemicals sector is closely tied to that same pharmaceutical supply chain — which is why organic chemicals rank as the second-largest export category rather than a standalone industry.

What Does the US Import From Ireland?

In short: pharmaceuticals, organic chemicals, and medical/scientific instruments make up the large majority of US imports from Ireland, with smaller but meaningful volumes of machinery, electronics, food, and beverages.

For any importer working in these categories, the country-level number is only a starting point — the real research value comes from HS-code-level and shipment-level detail, which is covered next.

Ireland-US Trade by Product / HS Code

Country-level totals answer "how much" trade happens between the US and Ireland. They don't answer "which products," "which companies," or "is this opportunity growing or shrinking for my specific niche." That's where HS (Harmonized System) code data becomes essential.

• HS 2-digit level (chapter level, e.g., HS 30 for pharmaceutical products) shows broad category trends — useful for identifying which industries dominate the relationship.

• HS 4-digit and HS 6-digit levels narrow this down to specific product types (e.g., a particular class of medicament or a specific chemical compound) — useful for spotting niche opportunities that aggregate statistics hide.

• Shipment-level records go a step further, showing individual import/export transactions, including product descriptions, quantities, and — depending on the data source and country — the importing and exporting companies involved.

Moving from country-level statistics to HS-code data to shipment records is the natural progression for any business trying to turn "the US imports a lot of pharmaceuticals from Ireland" into "here are the specific companies importing my product category, how often they buy, and who they buy from."

US-Ireland Trade by Major Industry

Pharmaceuticals. Ireland is a top-five source of US pharmaceutical imports. Demand is driven by contract manufacturing arrangements between global drug makers and their Irish subsidiaries. Companies tracking this space should watch generic drug tariff policy, FDA facility approvals, and shifts in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) sourcing.

Chemicals. Organic chemicals trade is closely tied to pharmaceutical manufacturing, since many of Ireland's chemical exports are intermediates and inputs feeding drug production, both locally and for re-export. This makes chemical trade volumes a useful leading indicator for pharmaceutical trade trends.

Medical devices and scientific instruments. A steadily growing category, reflecting Ireland's position as a European medtech manufacturing hub alongside its pharmaceutical base.

Aerospace. Ireland's aircraft-leasing industry — home to some of the world's largest aircraft lessors — makes aircraft and aerospace parts one of the largest US export categories to Ireland, even though the aircraft themselves are typically destined for airlines around the world rather than for use within Ireland.

Food and beverages. A smaller but visible category on both sides — Irish dairy, spirits, and beverages moving to the US, and US agricultural and food products moving to Ireland.

Electronics and machinery. Present in both directions in moderate volumes, reflecting general industrial and manufacturing trade rather than a single dominant driver.

Key US-Ireland Trade Trends in 2025-26

• The goods-and-services deficit widened sharply — up nearly 50% between 2024 and 2025 — while the narrower goods-only deficit also grew, from $86.7 billion to $114.2 billion.

• Trade was heavily front-loaded in 2025. Monthly BEA data shows the deficit with Ireland peaking above $11 billion in a single month (May 2025) before narrowing to $2–3 billion per month by the second half of the year, consistent with importers accelerating shipments ahead of anticipated tariff or policy changes on pharmaceutical products.

• Pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals remain the dominant categories on the Ireland-to-US side, together accounting for well over half of Ireland's total exports to the US.

• The services relationship continues to run in the opposite direction of goods, with Ireland recording large royalty and licensing payments to the US that partially offset the goods imbalance when viewed on a combined basis.

These are historical patterns drawn from published BEA and CSO data through the most recent available releases; they describe what has happened, not a forecast of what tariff policy or trade volumes will do next.

US Trade With Ireland: Business Opportunities

Aggregate trade data is a starting point for identifying where to look — not a substitute for product- and company-level research. Businesses evaluating US trade with Ireland can use bilateral data to narrow down:

• Which product categories are growing fastest in either direction

• Which HS codes show rising import volumes but few established suppliers

• Which US industries are increasingly sourcing from Irish manufacturers (and vice versa)

• Where seasonal or cyclical patterns create timing opportunities for new entrants

• Which competitor companies are already active in a given product lane

How Bilateral Trade Data Helps Importers and Exporters

Bilateral trade data operates on three levels, and each level answers a different business question:

1. Country-level statistics (the BEA and CSO figures cited throughout this article) answer: is this trade relationship large, growing, and worth paying attention to?

2. Product-level (HS code) data answers: which specific products and categories are driving that relationship?

3. Company-level trade intelligence — shipment records showing specific importers, exporters, buyers, and suppliers — answers the question that actually matters for a sales or sourcing team: who is buying, who is selling, and how can I reach them?

Most publicly available trade statistics stop at level one or two. Level three is where detailed US customs data and shipment-level trade intelligence platforms add value that government aggregate statistics can't provide on their own.

How to Find US-Ireland Importers, Exporters & Buyers

For a business trying to enter the US-Ireland trade lane — whether as a supplier looking for buyers or a buyer looking for new suppliers — the practical research process typically follows this sequence:

1. Identify the relevant HS code(s) for your product category.

2. Review historical import/export volume trends for that code between the US and Ireland.

3. Identify the companies currently shipping that product — both established players and newer entrants.

4. Analyze shipment frequency and volume to distinguish occasional buyers from consistent, high-volume importers.

5. Cross-reference competitor activity to understand who else is already supplying the market.

Businesses looking to move beyond headline trade statistics can use detailed US-Ireland import and export data to identify active buyers, suppliers, products, shipment trends, and potential business opportunities — turning country-level numbers into a workable prospect list rather than a static report.

US-Ireland Trade Data FAQs

What is US-Ireland trade? US-Ireland trade refers to the flow of goods and services between the United States and Ireland. In 2025, combined goods-and-services trade totaled roughly $288 billion, making Ireland the 8th-largest US trading partner overall, according to BEA data.

What is the US Ireland trade balance? On a goods-and-services basis, the US ran a $48.18 billion deficit with Ireland in 2025. On a goods-only basis, the deficit was larger, at $114.2 billion, reflecting Ireland's large services trade surplus with the US that partially offsets the goods gap.

Does the US have a trade deficit with Ireland? Yes. The US has recorded a goods-and-services trade deficit with Ireland every year from 2015 through 2025, driven primarily by pharmaceutical and chemical imports from Irish manufacturing subsidiaries of global drug companies.

What does the US export to Ireland? The leading US exports to Ireland are aircraft and aerospace equipment, pharmaceutical products, machinery, medical and optical instruments, and electrical/electronic equipment, reflecting Ireland's aircraft-leasing industry and pharmaceutical manufacturing sector.

What does the US import from Ireland? The US imports mainly pharmaceuticals, organic chemicals, and medical/scientific instruments from Ireland. These three categories account for the majority of total import value, driven by Ireland's role as a manufacturing base for major global pharmaceutical companies.

What are Ireland's major exports to the US? Pharmaceutical products and organic chemicals lead by a wide margin, followed by medical and optical apparatus, cosmetics and essential oils, machinery, electronics, aircraft, beverages, and dairy products.

What are the major US exports to Ireland? Aircraft and aerospace parts are the single largest category, followed by pharmaceutical products, machinery, medical instruments, electrical equipment, and mineral fuels.

Which products are most traded between the US and Ireland? Pharmaceuticals dominate the relationship on both value and volume, followed by organic chemicals and medical/scientific instruments on the import side, and aircraft parts and machinery on the export side.

How can I find US-Ireland importers? Start with HS-code-level trade statistics to identify which products are moving in volume, then use shipment-level customs data or a trade-intelligence platform to identify the specific companies handling those shipments.

How can I find Irish exporters to the US? The same approach applies in reverse — identify the relevant product category, review export trend data, then drill down to company-level shipment records to see which Irish exporters are actively shipping to US buyers.

Where can I find bilateral trade data? Government sources include the US Census Bureau, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US International Trade Commission, Ireland's Central Statistics Office, and Eurostat. For product- and company-level detail, dedicated international trade databases built on customs shipment records go further than published government aggregates.

How can businesses use US-Ireland trade data for lead generation? By identifying growing product categories, then using HS-code and shipment-level data to build a list of active importers, exporters, buyers, and suppliers already operating in that category — turning trade statistics into a targeted outreach list rather than a general market overview.

Conclusion

US-Ireland trade remains one of the most concentrated and consequential bilateral relationships the United States has - small in population terms, but large enough in dollar value to rank among the US's top ten trading partners. The relationship is defined by a handful of industries: pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals flowing to the US, and aircraft, machinery, and pharmaceutical inputs flowing to Ireland. The trade balance figures depend heavily on whether goods, services, or both are counted, and 2025 was an unusually front-loaded year, with shipment volumes swinging sharply between the first and second halves of the year.