President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping U.S. tariffs has drawn attention at the inclusion of several remote and sparsely populated territories, including Australia’s uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, known for their penguin colonies.
On Wednesday, Trump declared that starting Saturday, the U.S. would impose a flat 10 percent tariff on imports from the majority of countries. Additionally, a complex system of higher tariffs, based on factors such as trade deficits, subsidies, and currency manipulation, is set to take effect from April 9 for select nations.
The inclusion of the Sub-antarctic Island group is not an isolated case of unusual targets within the White House’s tariff list. The Australian external territory of Norfolk Island, with a population of just over 2,000, is also slated to face a “29 percent discounted reciprocal tariff,” a 19 percent increase compared to the rest of Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his bewilderment regarding Norfolk Island’s inclusion. “I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the U.S. But this shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on Earth is exempted,” he stated on Thursday.
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When questioned about the tariffs on Norfolk, Heard, and McDonald Islands, the White House informed Politico that these territories were listed simply because they are Australian territories.
The online political publication further reported that Australia’s Christmas Island, as well as the British Indian Ocean Territory, were also included in the tariff list. The British Indian Ocean Territory, an archipelago of 58 islands administered by London, is largely uninhabited except for Diego Garcia, which serves as a joint U.S./British military base.
Other remote territories targeted by the U.S. tariffs include Tokelau, a New Zealand territory in the South Pacific with approximately 1,500 residents, and the Norwegian overseas territories of Svalbard, with a population of 2,500, and Jan Mayen, which has no permanent population but houses 18 people during the winter within the Arctic Circle.
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