'Ireland has entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasp' - Trump

US President Donald Trump has raised a "massive" trade imbalance with Ireland and accused the European Union of treating the US "very badly".

He made the comments during a bilateral meeting with Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin as part of the Irish government's traditional St Patrick's Day engagements.

Earlier on Wednesday, the European Union announced it will impose counter tariffs on €26bn ($28bn) worth of US goods from next month.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said: "There's a massive deficit that we have with Ireland... we want to sort of even that out as nicely as we can, and we'll work together."

Martin told President Trump that foreign investment is a two-way street, adding that Ireland is "investing a lot more in America now".

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