Nowhere’s safe’: How an island of penguins ended up on Trump tariff list

6 comments

1. Snippet from this article:”Two tiny, remote Antarctic outposts populated by penguins and seals are among the obscure places targeted by the Trump administration’s new tariffs.
   Heard and McDonald Islands – a territory which sits 4,000km (2,485 miles) south-west of Australia – are only accessible via a seven-day boat trip from Perth, and haven’t been visited by humans in almost a decade.
   Australian trade minister Don Farrell told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the tariffs were “clearly a mistake”.
   “Poor old penguins, I don’t know what they did to Trump, but, look, I think it’s an indication, to be honest with you, that this was a rushed process.”

   President Trump on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping import tax scheme, in retaliation for what he said are unfair trade barriers on US products.
   A handful of other Australian territories were also hit by the new tariffs, in addition to the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, the Falkland Islands and The British Indian Ocean Territory.
   “It just shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on Earth is safe from this,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.
   Like the rest of Australia, the Heard and McDonald Islands, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island are now subject to a tariff of 10%. A tariff of 29% was imposed on Norfolk Island, which is also an Australian territory and has a population of about 2,200 people.
   Heard Island, though, is barren, icy and completely uninhabited – home to Australia’s largest and only active volcano, Big Ben, and mostly covered by glaciers.
   It is believed the last time people ventured on to Heard Island was in 2016, when a group of amateur radio enthusiasts broadcast from there with permission of the Australian government.
   Mike Coffin, from the University of Tasmania, has made the journey to the surrounding waters seven times to conduct scientific research, and is sceptical about the existence of major exports from the island to the US.

2. My heart goes out to the people of Heard Island and McDonald Islands.

3. Maybe he confused them with the Penguins of Madagascar. Those guys are sharp businessmen, and I could see them running a massive trade surplus with the USA.

4. How dare these penguins try to rip off americans! What audacity! Send the F-47s right now!! /s

5. This talking point is dumb, so an inhabited island have trade activity with the US. If they have trade activity, it means someone used them to dodge tariffs. It’s fair to put tariff on them too.

6. Is this why people think it was an AI draft?

Comments are closed.