Trade war with penguins? Trump's tariffs hit some remote targets across the globe

US President Donald Trump launched a 10% baseline tax on imports from all countries across the globe — including a group of barren islands inhabited by penguins.

Included in the list of 185 places hit by Trump's tariffs, unveiled on what he dubbed "Liberation Day", were the Heard and McDonald Islands, an external territory of Australia, and Jan Mayen, a Norwegian territory in the Arctic Ocean. Both are uninhabited by humans.

The Heard and McDonald Islands, a collection of islands close to Antarctica, are among some of the remotest places on Earth, accessible only via a two-week boat voyage from Australia and inhabited mostly by penguins and seals. Visits to them are highly restricted to preserve the ecology of the location and require a permit.

Despite having no human residents and thus no economy of their own, the islands will be hit by Washington with a tariff of 10%, alongside mainland Australia.

They are one of several "external territories" to Australia that have been slapped with specific tariffs of their own, alongside the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island and Norfolk Island.

The latter, a tiny island with a population of 2,188, was singled out with a 29% tariff, higher than the rate applied to imports from Australia proper.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he wasn't sure why Norfolk Island had been singled out.

"I'm not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the US," Albanese told Australian media, saying the move "exemplifies the fact that nowhere on Earth is exempt from this".

While data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity showed that in 2023, Norfolk Island exported $655,000 (€591,000) to the US, including $413,000 (€373,000) worth of leather footwear, a spokesperson for the Norfolk Island administrator told Australia's SBS News it had "no known exports" to the US.

"Tourism is the main industry on Norfolk Island and the primary driver of economic activity," the spokesperson said. "We are scratching our heads here."

Uninhabited

Alongside the Heard and McDonald Islands, Trump's trade war hit the uninhabited Arctic territory of Jan Mayen, which was placed under a 10% tariff alongside the Svalbard archipelago.

The volcanic island is part of the Kingdom of Norway and has no permanent population. Its only inhabitants are 18 personnel who work for the Norwegian military and the nation's Meteorological Institute in the winter, and 35 who arrive for the summer months.

It's part of the Svalbard archipelago, also hit by Trump's 10% tariffs, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean with a population of just under 3,000. Once a mining centre, its economy now consists primarily of tourism.

Svarland was targeted alongside the Norwegian mainland, which is facing a tariff of 15%. Prime Minister Johas Gahr Støre described the move as "bad news" in an interview with public broadcaster NRK.

Around 8% of mainland Norwegian exports are sent to the US, the broadcaster said, the country's third largest export market.

Also impacted by Trump's baseline 10% taxes is the British Indian Ocean Territory, populated solely by around 3,000 British and US military personnel and other contractors located at the jointly owned UK-US Diego Garcia military base.

Réunion, a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean, was hit by a staggering 37% tariff, despite having a population of roughly 896,175 inhabitants.