A group of uninhabited, volcanic islands near Antarctica that are covered in glaciers and are home to penguins, have been slapped by US President Donald Trump by a 10 percent tariff on goods as part of the sweeping, worldwide tariffs he announced Wednesday.
Heard Island and McDonald islands are an external territory of Australia and are some of the remotest places on earth. They can only be reached via a two-week boat journey from Perth, Australia. The last visit from people is believed to be nearly 10 years ago. Yet, they are featured on Trump’s list of “countries” that would have the new trade tariffs imposed.
Another external territory of Australia, Norfolk Island, with a population of 2,188 people and lies 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) north-east of Sydney, was also hit with a 29 percent tariff -19 percent higher than the rest of Australia.
According to Observatory of Economic Complexity data, in 2023 the island exported $655,000 worth of goods to the US, with its main export being $413,000 worth of leather footwear. However, George Plant, the administrator of Norfolk Island, disputes the data. “There are no known exports from Norfolk Island to the United States and no tariffs or known no-tariff trade barriers on goods coming to Norfolk Island,” he told the Guardian.
“Norfolk Island has got a 29 percent tariff. I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the United States but that just shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on earth is safe from this,” Australian Prime Mnister, Anthony Albanese said Thursday.
External territories, such as those listed in President Trump’s tariff list are part of Australia and not self-governing but have a unique relationship with the federal government.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump unveiled expansive new tariffs in a major escalation of his trade war, with world leaders condemning his move and warning of countermeasures.
Trump, referring to the historic move as a “declaration of economic independence,” announced a baseline of 10 percent tariffs, with some countries the White House has deemed the “worst offenders” getting hit with higher rates. The new rates affect about 100 countries, with 60 of those facing the higher import taxes.
Trump’s reciprocal tariffs won’t match the ones foreign countries impose on the US unless a country already had a 10 percent US tariff. They also won’t stack on top of existing duties by sector.
“We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us, so the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal,” Trump said from the Rose Garden. “I could have done that, I guess, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries and we didn’t want to do that.”
