Penguins, seals and polar bears: the tiny islands caught up in Trump’s tariffs.
It’s two specks of land populated by penguins and seals.
Heard and McDonald islands, which sit 4000 kilometres south-west of Perth and are home to Australia’s only active volcanoes, are uninhabited apart from an occasional visit by scientists to check in on the unusual wildlife.
McDonald and Herd Island and some of its inhabitants – a tariff threat to the United States.
But according to US President Donald Trump, the penguins and seals of Heard and McDonald islands are worthy of a 10 per cent tariff.
As part of Trump’s Liberation Day, Heard and McDonald islands – an Australian external territory with no recorded exports – were included in his import tax hit list.
They weren’t the only Australian external territories to grab the President’s attention. Both Cocos and Christmas islands, which sit in the Indian Ocean off the WA coast, were also slapped with a 10 per cent tariff.
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Australian officials, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, were also caught surprise by a 29 per cent tariff on Norfolk Island whose 2200 residents are registered to vote in the ACT.
Norfolk Island officially recorded $411,000 in leather shoe exports in 2023.
“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 exempt from this,” Albanese said.
