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- President Donald Trump announced a 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands.
- A remote Australian territory, the islands do not have any permanent human residents.
- They do, however, have millions of penguins, seals, and other Antarctic wildlife.
When President Donald Trump announced sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” on countries across the globe, one place included among major trade partners like China and the European Union raised eyebrows.
The Heard and McDonald Islands, a remote Australian territory located between Madagascar and Antarctica, was hit with a 10% tariff despite not having any permanent human residents.
“It just shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on Earth is safe from this,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said of Trump’s tariffs on the country’s territories, the BBC reported.
The tariffs brought new attention to the small islands that, while uninhabited by people, do feature millions of penguins, seals, and other species of Antarctic wildlife.
Take a closer look at the Heard and McDonald Islands.
President Donald Trump’s announcement of what he called “reciprocal tariffs” included a 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands.
On April 2, in what he called “Liberation Day,” Trump signed an executive order establishing a 10% baseline tariff on all countries. China was initially hit with a reciprocal tariff of 34%, and the European Union’s tariff was set at 20%.
The announcement sent the stock market crashing on April 3 in the worst single-day loss since 2020 as investors panicked about the possible economic impact.
Located 2,500 miles off the coast of Australia between Madagascar and Antarctica, the islands have no permanent human residents.
The Heard and McDonald Islands aren’t an independent country — they’re Australian territories spanning about 37,000 hectares, or about the size of Detroit.
However, they are inhabited by penguins, seals, and other species of Antarctic wildlife.
The Heard and McDonald Islands feature one of the world’s largest macaroni penguin colonies. Out of a global population of around 6.3 million breeding pairs of macaroni penguins, around 1 million are located on the Heard and McDonald Islands, according to a 2013 estimate by BirdLife International.
Other species of penguins on the islands include king, gentoo, chinstrap, and rockhopper penguins.
UNESCO’s World Heritage List calls the islands “one of the most biologically pristine areas in the world.”
According to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, only a few species of penguins and other marine birds and mammals live on the Heard and McDonald Islands, but they number in the millions.
With no introduced species present, the islands are particularly useful to researchers since their low species diversity allows scientists to study the ecosystem more precisely.
Heard Island is also home to an active volcano known as Big Ben.
The Heard and McDonald Islands are the only volcanically active sub-Antarctic islands on Earth. Their highest peak, Big Ben, stands at 9,006 feet.
Researchers and explorers have visited the Heard and McDonald Islands to study and photograph the remote setting.
The Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition established a scientific research station on Heard Island in 1947, which remained operational until 1955. A 1982 expedition visited the ruins of the former research station and used it as their base camp, according to a 1982 issue of Australian Women’s Weekly.
Researchers continue to study glacial and geological activity on the undeveloped islands to monitor the effects of climate change and learn more about the planet’s tectonic plates.
How the tariffs will impact the islands’ future trade with the US remains to be seen.
The White House previously told Business Insider that the reciprocal tariffs do still apply to the unpopulated islands because they’re Australian territories.
World Bank data shows that the US imported $1.4 million worth of machinery and electrical goods from the Heard and McDonald Islands in 2022.
In response to a previous request for comment, representatives for the Australian Antarctic Division, which manages the Heard and McDonald Islands, directed BI to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which did not respond.
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