‘Nowhere on Earth is safe’: Trump imposes tariffs on uninhabited islands near Antarctica
Australian
prime minister surprised after external territories – including tiny
Norfolk Island and remote islands home to penguins – targeted by US
president
A
group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered
in glaciers and home to penguins, have been swept up in Donald Trump’s
trade war, as the US president hit them with a 10% tariff on goods.
Heard
Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of
Australia, are among the remotest places on Earth, accessible only via a
two-week boat voyage from Perth on Australia’s west coast. They are
completely uninhabited, with the last visit from people believed to be
nearly 10 years ago.
Nevertheless,
Heard and McDonald islands featured in a list released by the White
House of “countries” that would have new trade tariffs imposed.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Thursday: “Nowhere on Earth is safe.”
Heard
Island and McDonald Islands are among several “external territories” of
Australia listed separately in the tariff list to Australia, which will
see a 10% tariff imposed on its goods.
External
territories are part of Australia and not self-governing but have a
unique relationship with the federal government. Such territories
featured on the White House list were the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island and Norfolk Island.
Norfolk
Island, which has a population of 2,188 people and lies 1,600km (1,000
miles) north-east of Sydney, was slugged with a tariff of 29% – 19
percentage points higher than the rest of Australia.
In
2023, Norfolk Island exported US$655,000 (A$1.04m) worth of goods to
the US, with its main export being US$413,000 (A$658,000) worth of
leather footwear, according to Observatory of Economic Complexity data.
But
George Plant, the administrator of Norfolk Island, disputed the data.
He told the Guardian: “There are no known exports from Norfolk Island to
the United States and no tariffs or known non-tariff trade barriers on
goods coming to Norfolk Island.”
Albanese said
on Thursday: “Norfolk Island has got a 29% 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.”
The
export figures from Heard Island and McDonald Islands are even more
perplexing. The territory does have a fishery but no buildings or human
habitation whatsoever.
Despite this, according
to export data from the World Bank, the US imported US$1.4m (A$2.23m)
of products from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022, nearly all
of which was “machinery and electrical” imports. It was not immediately
clear what those goods were.
In the five years
prior, imports from Heard Island and McDonald Islands ranged from
US$15,000 (A$24,000) to US$325,000 (A$518,000) per year.
The
White House, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and
the Australian Antarctic Division were contacted for comment.