Mint Quick Edit | Tariffs: Will penguins stop ripping the US off?

While brains are wracked over the global impact of US tariffs, what has left many particularly zapped is the inclusion of a group of remote islands in its target list. Heard and McDonald Islands near Antarctica is listed as a place whose goods shipped to the US will now attract a 10% import levy.

This has not left its residents in a flap, though. No human being lives there. The islands are inhabited mostly by penguins and seals.

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On rare occasions, researchers drop by and set up camp in this “external territory” of Australia, but it’s a long boat ride from Perth. Norfolk Island, another such territory about 5,000km away, has been slapped with a tariff of 29%, although America’s trade barrier for shipments from Australia will be set at 10%.

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With a population of only 2,188 people, Norfolk seems like an unlikely threat to American greatness, no matter how it’s defined. Is it ripping the US off? Its administrator has reportedly denied any exports to America or curbs placed on imports from it.

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese decoded the US signal in just five words: “Nowhere on earth is safe,” he observed. Indeed. It’s what happens when policy is shaped by the beauty of words in a dictionary.