Donald Trump Imposes Tariffs on Islands Only Inhabited by Penguins
Not even the penguins are exempt from 's tariffs.
On April 3, the president announced a new plan that implements a universal 10 percent tariff on imports to the U.S., as well as higher tariffs for dozens of select countries.
Among the places that will be facing the plan's new import taxes include Australian territories Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which are near the Arctics. But these islands—which currently contain active volcanoes—are completely uninhabited by humans. In fact, it takes a two-week journey by boat from Perth to even access the islands.
"Since the first landing on Heard Island in 1855, there have been only approximately 240 shore-based visits to the island,' notes the Australian Antarctic Program website, 'and only two landings on McDonald Island (in 1971 and 1980).'
And with the value of all items imported by the U.S. in 2024 adding up to zero, the 10 percent tariff will seemingly only affect the penguins and seals that call the small territories home.
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However, these islands aren't the only nearly barren lands that are facing Trump's tariffs. Jan Mayen Island, which has a population of zero, is facing the same circumstances. But in this case, the Norwegian volcanic island's polar bears will, er, bear witness to the new plan.
Meanwhile, the Falkland Islands, which is a British overseas territory in the Atlantic, has a population of 3,200 people and around one million penguins. Now, the remote archipelago is facing tariffs of 41 percent. Meanwhile, Britain itself only faces 10 percent tariffs.
Norfolk Island, which is another Australian territory that has just over 2,000 inhabitants, is also facing exponentially higher tariffs than its mainland with a whopping 29 percent.
'I'm not sure what Norfolk Island's major exports are to the United States and why it's been singled out, but it has,' Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters after Trump's announcement, per CBS News. '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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