Sir, – It is to be welcomed that Government is at last showing an appreciation of the importance of exports to our economy and has established the high-level Trade and Investment Council which will decide on many relevant questions ("New trade strategy launched to capture bigger share of global market – Varadkar says we shouldn't take our current success in trade for granted", Business, April 12th).
One of the questions not addressed is that of foreign language capability.
Individual exporter’s successful market diversifications (implied in the document) depend on their ability to communicate in the buyer’s language – long recognised as a sine qua non of international trade. The percentage of Irish companies which have a foreign languages strategy is extremely low.
In 2021, the English-speaking US accounted for 32 per cent of our goods exports, only slightly less than the 37 per cent exported to the polyglot EU markets on our doorsteps. Does this reflect our language capabilities?
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
A trade strategy without a foreign languages strategy seems optimistic as much of the promotional effort which is discussed in the document will not be rewarded.
This question should be high on the agenda for the next meeting of the Trade and Investment Council. – Yours, etc,
COLUM MacDONNELL,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.