Tariffs Hit One Puzzling Locale

The unveiling of President Trump's tariffs on Wednesday had White House journalists reaching for their atlases—or at least Google. On the list of penalized nations is one that's actually an Australian territory in the Antarctic called Heard Island and McDonald Islands. Its inclusion is a bit of a puzzler:

• Remote: The islands are about as remote as you can get, explains Wired. No humans live there, with the main inhabitants being penguins. It takes about two weeks to get there by boat from the Australian mainland. Combined, the islands are about the size of Philadelphia.
• Zero trade: The islands were hit with the baseline tariff of 10%, the same as mainland Australia. Their trade with the US is $0, thus making the new penalty "somewhat moot," notes the Washington Post.

• Another island: The US imposed an even bigger tariff, 29%, on another remote territory managed by Australia—Norfolk Island in the South Pacific, per the Guardian. It has about 2,000 people and does conduct some trade with the US, with the big export being about $400,000 worth of leather footwear, according to stats from the Observatory of Economic Complexity. However, officials from the territory and Australia dispute those figures and voiced disbelief.
• Leader vents: "Norfolk Island has got a 29% tariff," said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "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."

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