No economy is safe from Trump’s tariffs, even non-economies
Some of the most remote territories on Earth have been hit by import taxes — including places like Heard Island where there are only penguins to pay up.
If you had the benefit of numeracy, you would’ve immediately understood the reciprocal tariff board presented by President Trump at the White House yesterday, breaking down the new rules of US international trade into “bigger percentage” and “smaller percentage.”
But, if you live on Heard Island, you might make better sense of the 10% tax announced on imports from the region to the US as minus one fish for every 10 fish you catch under ice.
Yes, while global economic superpowers like China and the EU are reeling from the higher-than-expected import taxes, Trump’s tariffs have also been imposed in some places that have no economies at all — as the only known citizens there are penguins, seals, and birds.
No pebble left unturned
Among these are Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an uninhabited external territory that’s almost 6,000 kilometers (or ~3,728 miles) off the west coast of Australia and ~3,700 kilometers north of Antarctica, making it one of the most remote places on Earth. It’s only accessible via a two-week boat trip from Perth and was believed to have last been visited by humans almost 10 years ago. It was last economically active in 1877, when the elephant seal oil trade dried up.
Though a White House official told Axios that these islands were included because they’re an Australian territory, the tariff list also encompassed Jan Mayan, a former whaling station in Norway with a permanent population of zero, as well as several military bases, like the Marshall Islands, which is a key outpost for the US military and navy.
Still, in the case of rolling out worldwide trade laws, it’s probably better to err on the side of caution to avoid loopholes and evasions and include all known territories. Russia being the exception, it would seem.
