Penguins and polar bears outnumber people in some tariff-hit territories

Tiny tropical islands and remote Arctic outposts with no populations are among the countries and territories that now face at least 10 per cent U.S. tariffs, with some far higher.

Some of the world’s least inhabited islands and territories have been hit by U.S. President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs on all foreign trading partners — and some appear to have more penguins and polar bears than trade agreements with the U.S.

Tiny tropical islands and remote outposts in the Antarctic and far North were included in the list of dozens of countries and territories that now face a baseline tariff of 10 per cent. Some of the outlier targets face far higher tariffs, based on calculated trade deficits with the U.S., leaving world leaders scratching their heads.

“Nowhere on Earth is exempt from this,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose country includes many of the territories caught up in Trump’s tariffs, told reporters Wednesday.

None of the territories listed below were included in the National Trade Estimate report on foreign trade barriers from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s office, released Monday.

The Trump administration has pointed to the report’s findings to justify the new global tariff policy, which is also based on a national emergency on foreign trade that Trump declared in his executive order Wednesday.

“President Trump is taking urgent action to protect the national security and economy of the United States,” Greer said in a statement. “The current lack of trade reciprocity, demonstrated by our chronic trade deficit, has weakened our economic and national security.”

Here are just some of the targets of Trump’s trade war that are raising eyebrows:

This Australian territory comprises two islands in the remote Antarctic that is uninhabited by people, other than temporary Australian scientific expeditions. A permanent research station on Heard Island was closed in 1954.