President Trump’s prices spared almost no corner of the earth. Even tiny poorly populated islands that export close to nothing.
On Wednesday, among the countries and territories listed on paper sheets that were distributed to journalists from the Roseraie de la Maison Blanche, islands islands and McDonald, Australian territories near Antarctica, where many penguins, but no people live. British British Indian Ocean territory, a collection of islands that are mostly uninhabited apart from American and British soldiers, stationed in the joint military bases of Diego Garcia.
Some territories face even higher prices than their governing nations. The island of Norfolk, an Australian territory in the South Pacific Ocean, faces 29% of prices, compared to the rate of 10% that Trump imposed in the country.
“I am not sure that Norfolk Island, towards it, a commercial competitor with the giant economy of the United States,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Australia. “But that shows and illustrates the fact that nowhere on earth is sheltered.”
In 2023, Norfolk Island exported $ 655,000 in products to the United States, including leather shoes and vehicle parts, and imported $ 116,000 in United States products, including chemical fertilizers, according to the economic complexity observatory, a data visualization platform.
The other islands subject to a 10% rate rate included Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand which has less than 2,000 inhabitants. The Norwegian Svalbard islands, which has around 3,000 inhabitants, and Jan Mayen, where humans are the military staff who operate a weather and coastal service station, have also been targeted.
The White House did not respond to a request for comments on the reasons why certain islands with little or no inhabitants have been targeted.
Réunion, a French territory west of Madagascar which has a population of less than 1 million, faces particularly high prices, at 37%, compared to the 20 prices imposed on France. The Falkland Islands, a British territory abroad autonomous, will have to pay 41% or 42% of prices (the White House gave two different figures), against 10% of the rates with which Great Britain is confronted.
