Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement

Terms of the Agreement

The treaty abolished the 20% tariffs that both the United Kingdom and Ireland had placed on each other's imported goods. Ireland made a final one-time payment of £10 million to the United Kingdom for the land annuities, which derived from financial loans originally granted to Irish tenant farmers by the British government under the Land Acts pre-1922, a provision of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. The remaining liability under a 1925 agreement was £11.75 million, payable in annual instalments of £250,000 over sixty years; the Irish side emphasised an apparent saving of £1,175,000, though this was more than matched by what the British would have gradually lost over 47 years if discounted on a time value of money basis. The United Kingdom also transferred to the government of Ireland the Treaty Ports of Queenstown (Cobh), Berehaven, and Lough Swilly, whose use had been retained by the United Kingdom under the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the Anglo-Irish War. The agreement, including the return of the ports, was given effect in the United Kingdom through the Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Act 1938.