1w ago

No explanation from White House why tiny Aussie island's tariffs are nearly triple the rest of Australia's

www.9news.com.au

No explanation why Norfolk Island's tariffs are nearly triple the rest of Australia's

Summary

The U.S. imposed a 29% tariff on Norfolk Island, nearly triple the 10% rate applied to the rest of Australia, with no explanation from the White House.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed confusion, noting Norfolk Island’s limited economic activity. The territory has a population of about 2,000 and minimal exports.

Other remote territories like Christmas Island and Heard and McDonald Islands also received tariffs, though the latter are uninhabited.

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1w ago

No explanation from White House why tiny Aussie island's tariffs are nearly triple the rest of Australia's

www.9news.com.au /national/donald-trump-tariffs-norfolk-island-australia-export-tariffs-stock-market-finance-news/be1d5184-f7a2-492b-a6e0-77f10b02665d

46 comments

Because that island exports 1000 dollars worth of timber (or whatever) to America, but only imports 300 dollars worth of paint (or whatever) from America. Trumps child like brain sees that as them taking advantage of poor old America. The numbers must be equal or better for America or they are being cheated. Even though America needs more wood and the isle folk don't need any more art supplies. He's an idiot.
- He thinks the trade deficit is a debt between two countries not the difference in trade between them.
- Trump's child-like mind can only understand win-lose trade agreements. He can't fathom a win-win, or a lose-lose.

My personal guess (just a guess, since none of this makes any logical sense) is that he's going to use the very high tariffs on those islands to help him with some creative accounting in showing overall wins when all of this is over - increasing the pittance that these islands are likely paying us already, let's call it turning $100 into $150 - no meaningful benefit to the US, but looks amazing by the percentages.
"See, I tariff'd the whole world for a 5.5 gajillion percent increase in US revenue! I'm a big winner!"
- I think your general point may be correct, but remember that tariffed countries don't pay anything, it is the US importers that pay and pass that along to US consumers.
  
  Tariffs are really meant to increase demand for domestic production, but that can only really happen if the production exists domestically to begin with.

Trump's fucking head is uninhabited yet here he is costing us a lot, so I guess that's the same as Heard Island tarrifs, right?

Christmas Island is well known for its asylum camps... and nothing else? Stupid is really the only word.
From wikipedia:
Christmas Island's geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of interest to scientists and naturalists. ... As of the 2021 Australian census, the population of Christmas Island is 1,692.
And there's a town there called "The Settlement"?
Good pick /s

Easy.
Someone from that island hurt Trump's feefees 3 decades ago.

An explanation implies some thought was put in to these tariffs, but instead it was just based on Trump's emotions that day.

I’m pretty sure that the trump regime spun two gameshow wheels: one to pick a country and another to pick a tariff percentage.
- I read that they just looked at popular top level domains in some AI and generated the tarrifs from them.
  All crazy places so far seem to have their own tld, so I fully support that theory

I assume he was once insulted by Eldon Foote or one of his kids.

It's obvious that he thinks the McDonald Island is where the fastfood chain gets their food. Since McDonald's is America's favorite and only source of food according to trump (probably) and since tariffs pay America, he's thinking he's going to make us rich. Everyone eats McDonald's which obviously comes from the McDonald Island. They pay the tariffs and Americans get rich. Art of the deal.

"Stupid is as stupid does."
The phrase carries the meaning of someone identified as stupid through their actions rather than their appearance.
The phrase means that stupid people will do silly things, and you can single them out by looking at their methodology and results with handling tasks.

Make them broke and offer to buy the land from under them

They threw a dart at a globe and that’s where it landed.

I'd be willing to bed these percentages are based on the responses to WH communications (of threats), and those who did not respond at all have received the harshest penalty category.
Of course, an island with zero inhabitants is not likely to have responded.

I'm sorry they put tarrifs on uninhabited islands lol
- Yet none to Russia, curious?
  
  Trump’s mouth is Putin’s cock-holster. It’s not really all that curious.
- Those uninhabited islands were formed specifically to rip off America!

- is that nelson mandela
  
  Nope just a Trump supporting piece of right wing shit.

They're just setting the tarriff to half the 'trade deficit' percentage.
Where the actual trade amount is trivial, this leads to ludicrous results.
- Elon for loop mastery

Someone he doesn’t like personally came from Norfolk Island, I’ll lay odds.
- People seem to cracked it.
  It looks like he used ChatGPT to create this policy.
  And ChatGPT basically calculated that trade deficit is other countries' tariffs. Then he took that value divided by 2 and applied 10% floor.
  
  Seriously?! Lol
- Nope, my bet is they set it based on the name alone and aren't even aware it's part of Australia.
  Probably went: "Norfolk Island? Sounds like somewhere we can push around, 29%".
  They're not sending their best people.
  
  100% this. Morons all the way down
- More likely someone he didn't like came from Norfolk VA or Norfolk MA or Norfolk NE, or Norfolk in England or Canada, and Trump's team (or the LLM they used to write the document) doesn't know the difference.

Other remote territories like Christmas Island and Heard and McDonald Islands also received tariffs, though the latter are uninhabited.
What a weave by a certified stable genius.
- He probably saw McDonald's island is where McDonald's is huge