President Trump, as part of his expansive package of new tariffs, levied taxes on a number of uninhabited or sparsely populated islands that have little-to-no exports. 

The announcement of new tariffs on Wednesday will hit nearly all foreign countries with a baseline tax at 10 percent. The administration also announced higher tariffs on others, ballooning up to 54 percent.

“Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” Trump said in his announcement from the White House, adding, “but it’s not going to happen anymore.”

Among those affected are the Heard Island and McDonald Islands, situated in the southern Indian Ocean southwest of Australia. The volcanically active subantarctic islands were slapped with a 10 percent tariff. 

The islands, which feature two active volcanoes, are accessible only via a boat ride from Perth, Australia. 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters following the announcement that the tariffs were not unexpected but “totally unwarranted” and claimed that “nowhere on Earth is safe.”

In a post on social platform X, he added that the Australia government would “stand up” for its people.

“These are uncertain times — but all Australians can be certain of this: we will always stand up for Australian jobs, Australian industry, Australian consumers and Australian values,” he wrote.

“Many other countries will be hit harder by today’s decision than Australia — and no nation is better prepared than Australia,” he added later.

Trump’s new set of tariffs also targeted Norfolk Island, a former British penal colony with a population of just more than 2,000 people.

The island, located in the South Pacific Ocean some 1,000 miles northeast of Sydney, was hit with 29 percent tariffs, a 19-point increase compared to Australia. 

Norfolk Island exported $655,000 worth of items to the U.S. in 2023, according to Observatory of Economic Complexity statistics, with most of it being leather footwear, motor vehicles and surveying equipment. 

The island’s Administrator George Plant said in an interview that he was “completely confused” about the tariff, telling ABC Radio Melbourne that Norfolk Island does not “export anything to the United States” to justify the 29 percent import tax.

Another Australian territory situated in the Indian Ocean is also facing a 10 percent tariff. 

Christmas Island Shire President Gordon Thomson told The Associated Press that trade between the island and the U.S. is nonexistent other than the exchange of mining equipment through Tractors Singapore.

The island’s main economic activity is a mining of low-grade phosphate, thus, it relies on U.S. machines. 

“The trade, if anything, is U.S. product into Christmas Island,” Thomson told the AP. “The only thing that we export is phosphate and that goes to Malaysia, Indonesia, maybe Thailand and a bit to the Australian mainland.” 

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