The Australian territories of Norfolk Island and Heard Island and McDonald Islands have been unfairly targeted with high tariffs by the US, according to new data that suggests erroneous trade data was used in the calculation process.
Norfolk Island, which has a population of 2,188 and is 1,600km north-east of Sydney, was hit with a 29% tariff on its goods despite claiming no export relationship with the US. However, analysis reveals that shipments from the island were incorrectly labelled as originating from Norfolk Island when in fact they came from other countries.
Similarly, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an uninhabited group of islands covered in glaciers near Antarctica, was also hit with a 10% tariff despite having no known exports to the US. However, export data suggests that nearly all of its imports were “machinery and electrical” goods from Europe.
The errors appear to have flowed through to US trade data used as the basis for calculating tariffs. The Australian government has condemned the decision, saying it was a mistake made by the US administration in a rushed process.
Experts say that the method used by the Trump administration to calculate tariffs is simple but flawed, and can produce incorrect results if the input data is incorrect. The Guardian has confirmed that this formula produced the 29% figure using US trade data for Norfolk Island.
The incident highlights concerns about the accuracy of international trade data and the potential for mistakes to be made in the calculation process. Other remote areas, including Jan Mayen and the Svalbard archipelago, were also hit with tariffs despite having few inhabitants or exports.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/04/revealed-how-trump-tariffs-slugged-norfolk-island-and-uninhabited-heard-and-mcdonald-islands