SYDNEY: Australia’s remote, uninhabited islands in the Antarctic and a tiny territory with barely any exports found themselves caught up alongside global heavyweights in US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime, leaving locals and officials baffled.
Richard Cottle, owner of a concrete-mixing business on Norfolk Island, said on Thursday there was only one explanation when Trump unveiled a hefty 29% tariff on the tiny territory about 600 miles off eastern Australia: “it was just a mistake”.
Though the rugged volcanic island in the southern Pacific does ship a modest amount of Kentia palm seeds abroad, typically worth less than US$1 million a year, mostly to Europe, news of the unusually steep tariff passed through its 2,188 residents on Thursday with a mixture of amusement and confusion.