There are places on this planet still where humans cannot reach, or have not bothered reaching in ages. Why? They are too far! But no worries. Trump and his tariffs have made it there too.
Two such places on the planet are called Heard Island and McDonald Island. For someone claiming to be a geography enthusiast, even I had not heard of Heard Island till T&T (Trump & Tariffs) chose to share that knowledge with me through a 10% levy on imports from these places.These external territories are part of Australia, who is also facing a 10% tariff imposition, but are possibly light years away from the Southern Hemisphere continent. A trip to this place takes two weeks by boat from Perth, Western Australia.
This is such a long journey, that this place has no human population, with the last visit being possibly a decade ago! The place has no buildings either.
What makes this even more bizarre is the fact that export data from World Bank shows imports of $1.4 million from Heard Island and McDonald Island in 2022, nearly all of which was machinery and electrical imports. However, granular details of these imports are unavailable.
In the five years prior, imports from these two places ranged from $15,000 to $3,25,000 per year; again, without a human trace!
Well, President Donald Trump has announced these tariffs but who is going to pay up? Pingu, the Penguin? Your guess is as good as ours.
An earlier paragraph in this piece referred to Trump and Tariffs as T&T. The pun is not lost as a combination of these have roiled equity markets and asset classes across the globe. In trying to Make America Wealthy Again, Donald Trump has wiped out $2 trillion in market capitalisation across just Wall Street in a matter of a few hours.
While we figure out the numbers, you can try to locate these places on the world atlas! No tariffs for the one who succeeds!
First Published: Apr 3, 2025 9:46 PM IS
