Trump tariffs: How island of penguins and seals ended up on list
Two tiny, remote Antarctic outposts populated by penguins and seals are among the obscure places targeted by the Trump administration's new tariffs.Heard and McDonald Islands - a territory which sits 4,000km (2,485 miles) south-west of Australia - are only accessible via a seven-day boat trip from Perth, and haven't been visited by humans in almost a decade.President Trump on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping import tax scheme, in retaliation for what he said are unfair trade barriers on US products. A handful of other Australian territories were also hit by the new tariffs, in addition to the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, the Falkland Islands and The British Indian Ocean Territory.
"It just shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on Earth is safe from this," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.Like the rest of Australia, the Heard and McDonald Islands, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island are now subject to a tariff of 10%. A tariff of 29% was imposed on the Norfolk Island, which is also an Australian territory and has a population of about 2,200 people.Heard Island, though, is barren, icy and completely uninhabited - home to Australia's largest and only active volcano, Big Ben, and mostly covered by glaciers.It is believed the last time people ventured on to Heard Island was in 2016, when a group of amateur radio enthusiasts broadcasted from there with permission of the Australian government.Mike Coffin, from the University of Tasmania, has made the journey to the surrounding waters seven times to conduct scientific research, and is sceptical about the existence of major exports from the island to the US. "There's nothing there," he told the BBC.As far as he knows, there's only two Australian companies which catch and export Patagonian toothfish and mackerel icefish. What is in abundance, however, is unique and spectacular nature.
The islands are listed by Unesco World Heritage as a rare example of an ecosystem untouched by external plants, animals or human impact."It's heavily colonised by penguins and elephant seals and all kinds of sea birds," said Prof Coffin, who studies the undersea geography of the islands.He recalls observing from afar what he thought was a beach, only the sands "turned out to be probably a few 100,000 penguins"."Every time a ship goes there and observes it, there's lava flowing down the flanks [of Big Ben]," he said, describing it sweeping over ice and sending up steam.
It's hard to get a clear picture of the trade relationship between the Heard and McDonald Islands and the US. According to export data from the World Bank, the islands have, over the past few years, usually exported a small amount of products to the US. But in 2022 the US imported US$1.4m (A$2.23m; ) from the territory, nearly all of it unnamed "machinery and electrical" products.The US Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration and Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been contacted for comment.As with many governments around the world, the tariffs have frustrated Australia's leaders, with Albanese saying they are "totally unwarranted" and "not the act of a friend."
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