Tánaiste Simon Harris has directly contradicted the US account of a call this week between himself and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state in US president Donald Trump’s administration.
Mr Harris, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs, spoke to Mr Rubio by phone on Tuesday.
A readout of the call provided by US State Department officials afterwards said that the two men had “discussed the US priority to address the US-Ireland trade imbalance”.
This was a reference to the fact that the US buys more goods and services from the State than it sells to the Republic, also called a “trade deficit” – a key gripe of Mr Trump’s administration in its relations with several European countries.
However, speaking in Britain on Thursday after a UK-Ireland political summit, the Tánaiste denied the State’s trade surplus with the US had been discussed at all.
“The trade imbalance wasn’t specifically referenced. I was on the call. I was on it for over 20 minutes. It was a very good conversation,” said Mr Harris.