The Australian prime minister was left completely bewildered when he saw his country’s external territories on the list of tariffs imposed by US President Trump, including tiny Norfolk Island and remote islands inhabited only by penguins.
The group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered in glaciers and inhabited only by penguins, have been caught in Donald Trump’s trade war, after the US president imposed a 10% tariff on goods imported from them.
The Heard and McDonald Islands, which make up Australia’s external territory, are among the most remote places on earth, accessible only by a two-week boat trip from Perth on Australia’s west coast. The islands are about 4,100 kilometres southwest of Perth and 1,630 kilometres north of Antarctica, and Heard is home to an active volcano covered in ice. They are completely uninhabited and were last visited by humans almost 10 years ago.
Yet Heard Island and McDonald Islands are on the list of “countries” announced by the White House.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that “nowhere on earth is safe anymore.”
Heard Island and McDonald Islands are among several “external territories” of Australia specifically listed on the Australian tariff schedule, which will see a 10% tariff on goods.
The external territories are part of Australia and are not self-governing, but have a unique relationship with the federal government. Such territories on the White House list include the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (a group of 27 small coral islands in the eastern Indian Ocean, with a population of 600 people, the territory sends 32% of its exports to the US), Christmas Island and Norfolk Island.
Norfolk Island, which has a population of 2,188 and is 1,600 kilometres northeast of Sydney, has been hit with a 29% tariff – 19 percentage points higher than the rest of Australia.
Norfolk Island exported $655,000 worth of goods to the US in 2023, with its main export being leather footwear worth $413,000, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).
But George Plant, the administrator of Norfolk Island, disputed the figures. He told the Guardian that “there are no known exports from Norfolk Island to the United States and there are no tariffs or known non-tariff trade barriers to goods coming into Norfolk Island.”
The figures for exports from Heard Island and McDonald Islands are even more puzzling. The territory has a fishpond but no buildings or human settlements. Economic activity there essentially ended in 1877, when the seal oil trade was cut off and the seal population abandoned the remote islands, which lie on the route from Madagascar to Antarctica.
Despite this, according to World Bank export data, the United States imported $1.4 million in goods from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022, almost all of which were “machinery and electrical power.” It was unclear what those goods were. Over the previous five years, imports from Heard Island and McDonald Islands had ranged from $15,000 to $325,000 a year.
On the other side of the planet, the tiny Norwegian island and former whaling colony of Jan Mayen faces the same tariff. However, there is no economic activity there, and no permanent population, just a small rotating military personnel.
There are other places on Trump’s list that are also, to put it mildly, small economies, like Tokelau, a self-governing territory of New Zealand, consisting of three atolls in the South Pacific Ocean and home to about 1,600 people. It has an economy of about $8 million and exports of about $100,000, and faces a 10 percent tariff.
One enclave that has been particularly hard hit by Trump’s tariffs is Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, a French territory of eight small islands off the coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland. With a population of about 5,000, it is “the only remaining part of France’s once vast possessions,” according to CNN. Its exports—processed shellfish—are now subject to a whopping 50 percent U.S. tariff, much higher than what France (20 percent) faces as part of the European Union.
In some ways, the Trump administration is also hitting places of great importance to Washington and U.S. national security.
The British Indian Ocean Territory faces a 10 percent tariff, even though it is home to just 3,000 British and American troops at the Diego Garcia air base.
The Marshall Islands, a group of 34 atolls and islands in the North Pacific, are home to 82,000 people and are home to the US military’s significant Kwajalein garrison, which tests and tracks ballistic missiles. The Marshall Islands exports about $130 million worth of goods. Although the US is not at the top of the export list, exports to the US would be subject to a 10 percent tariff.
