Widespread U.S. tariffs target a number of locations, including the Australian external territories of Heard and McDonald Islands, which are home to penguin colonies but no people.

President Donald Trump announced this on Wednesday. From Saturday, the U.S. will impose a flat tariff of 10 per cent on imports from most countries.

The U.S. government also announced a complex mechanism that would see higher tariffs apply from April 9 on a number of countries based on factors including trade deficits, subsidies and currency manipulation.

The Sub-antarctic island group is not the only odd inclusion in the White House’s list of countries to be hit by the new reciprocal tariffs.

The fellow Australian external territory of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific has just over 2,000 people.

The territory is to be hit by a 29 per cent discounted reciprocal tariff, 19 per cent more than the rest of Australia.

However, the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Thursday that he was not sure that Norfolk Island was a trade competitor with the giant economy of the U.S.

”I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the U.S. But this shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on earth is exempt,” he said.

Asked about the tariffs on Norfolk, Heard and McDonald Islands, the White House told Politico they were listed because they were Australian territories.

The online political publication reported that Australia’s external territory of Christmas Island was also listed, as well as the British Indian Ocean Territory.

It is an archipelago of 58 islands administered by London that is uninhabited aside from the island of Diego Garcia, used as a joint U.S.-British base.

Other remote territories listed included Tokelau in the South Pacific, a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean with about 1,500 inhabitants.

There are also the Norwegian overseas territories of Svalbard, with a population of 2,500 and Jan Mayen, which has no permanent population but 18 people living there in winter within the Arctic Circle. 

(dpa/NAN)