A group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered in glaciers and home to penguins, has been swept up in Donald Trump’s trade war, as the US president hit them with a 10% tariff on goods.
Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of Australia, are among the remotest places on Earth, accessible only via a two-week boat voyage from Perth on Australia’s west coast. They are completely uninhabited, with the last visit from people believed to be nearly 10 years ago.
Nevertheless, Heard and McDonald islands featured in a list released by the White House of “countries” that would have new trade tariffs imposed.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Thursday: “Nowhere on Earth is safe.”
Heard Island and McDonald Islands are among several “external territories” of Australia listed separately in the tariff list to Australia, which will see a 10% tariff imposed on its goods.
External territories are part of Australia and not self-governing but have a unique relationship with the federal government. Such territories featured on the White House list were the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island and Norfolk Island.
Norfolk Island, which has a population of 2,188 people and lies 1,600km (1,000 miles) north-east of Sydney, was slugged with a tariff of 29% – 19 percentage points higher than the rest of Australia.
In 2023, Norfolk Island exported US$655,000 (A$1.04m) worth of goods to the US, with its main export being US$413,000 (A$658,000) worth of leather footwear, according to Observatory of Economic Complexity data.
But George Plant, the administrator of Norfolk Island, disputed the data. He told the Guardian: “There are no known exports from Norfolk Island to the United States and no tariffs or known non-tariff trade barriers on goods coming to Norfolk Island.”
Albanese said on Thursday: “Norfolk Island has got a 29% tariff. 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.”
The export figures from Heard Island and McDonald Islands are even more perplexing. The territory does have a fishery but no buildings or human habitation whatsoever.
Despite this, according to export data from the World Bank, the US imported US$1.4m (A$2.23m) of products from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022, nearly all of which was “machinery and electrical” imports. It was not immediately clear what those goods were.
In the five years prior, imports from Heard Island and McDonald Islands ranged from US$15,000 (A$24,000) to US$325,000 (A$518,000) per year.
The White House, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Antarctic Division were contacted for comment.
