Trump Tariffs Hit Antarctic Islands Inhabited by Zero Humans and Many Penguins
Source: Wired
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced the US was imposing reciprocal tariffs on a small collection of Antarctic islands that are not inhabited by humans, as part of a global trade war aimed at asserting US dominance. The Heard and McDonald Islands, known for their populations of penguins and seabirds, can only be reached by sea.
Trump announced the countries now subject to tariffs in a Wednesday press conference, using a poster as a prop. Additional countries—including the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are, incidentally, not countries—were listed on sheets of paper distributed to reporters.
One of the sheets claims that the Heard and McDonald Islands currently charge a “Tariff to the U.S.A.” of 10 percent, clarifying in tiny letters that this includes "currency manipulation and trade barriers." In return, the sheet says that the US will charge "discounted reciprocal tariffs" on the islands at a rate of 10 percent.
The islands are small. Their reported 37,000 hectares of land makes them a little larger than Philadelphia. According to UNESCO, which designated the islands as a World Heritage Site in 1997, they are covered in rocks and glaciers. Heard Island is the site of an active volcano, and McDonald Island is surrounded by several smaller rocky islands. The islands are home to large populations of penguins and elephant seals.
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Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/trump-tariffs-antarctic-islands-heard-mcdonald/
For some reason the Trump White House "did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment."
= new reply since forum marked as read
"The uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, an Australian territory in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean, were hit by a 10 per cent tariff on all their exports. It is unclear what impact that will have on the penguins that live there."
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/donald-trump-liberates-americans-from-their-retirement-savings-with-tariff-gamble/ar-AA1CbeSO?ocid=msedgdhphdr&cvid=02f6d10a175246519e2c39ce916a768a&ei=40
Obvious problems for the future are that there will be more unemployed people paying no tax due to DOGE, and shop prices going up due to tariffs. The resulting poverty may not be genteel for a lot of people.
Add to this the businesses that will come back to America, according to Trump, currently have no local infrastructure, no factories and most likely no trained staff.
That will all take years to establish, and they will all suffer under the yoke of tariffs while doing so.
From th same source:
“Keep in mind, this is a gigantic experiment like we’ve never seen before. On paper, it looks great to the President… But keep in mind, people have got to come over here and build factories and that takes years. And there is a lot of uncertainty,” said Steve Doocy.
And Trump won't be around long enough for those industries to fire up, what are the chances the next administration will back away from tariffs, making local production unable to compete?
What business wants to take those risks?
That's one of my go-to exclamations when the absurd strikes, too!
It's about time Trump makes them PAY....