Norfolk Island, a tiny volcanic outcrop in the South Pacific, found itself in the unlikely company of China and the European Union this week, targeted by US President Donald Trump’s new 29 per cent tariff.
The move has left the island’s 2,188 residents scratching their heads, a mixture of amusement and bewilderment rippling through the community.
For Richard Cottle, owner of a local concrete-mixing business, the explanation is simple: “It was just a mistake.”
The island, located roughly 600 miles off eastern Australia, boasts a limited export trade, primarily Kentia palm seeds, the value of which falls well below $1million annually, and mostly shipped to Europe.
“Norfolk Island is a little dot in the world,” Cottle explained. “We don’t export anything.”
The island’s inclusion on the list of territories subject to the tariff, alongside major global economies, highlights the seemingly indiscriminate nature of the new trade measures. Dozens of other small territories, similarly lacking significant manufacturing or export industries, also found themselves unexpectedly targeted.
Some, like the Heard and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic, which like Norfolk Island is overseen by Australia, did not even have human inhabitants. No matter – as of Thursday, they faced a 10 per cent tariff for exports to the U.S.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, on the campaign trail ahead of an election in a month, told the media his country did better than most with a tariff of 10 per cent – half of what the EU was hit with and one-third of what China got – but he had no explanation for Norfolk Island.
“Last time I looked, Norfolk Island was a part of Australia,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The separate, higher tariff “was somewhat unexpected and a bit strange”, he added.
According to U.S. government data, the U.S. has recorded trade deficits with Norfolk Island for the past three years. The island exported $300,000 worth of goods to the U.S. in 2022, $700,000 in 2023 and $200,000 in 2024. Its imports from the U.S. stayed at $100,000 in those years.
Norfolk Island’s imports from the U.S. peaked at $11.7 million in 2020, when no exports were recorded. The data did not specify what goods were traded.
Other Norfolk Island business owners could think of no manufacturing industry on the island, and added that its main industry by far was tourism.
One pest control business owner, who asked not to be named, said that although they did not export to the U.S., they imported some rodent bait from the U.S. via Australia.
“Products from Norfolk Island are going to have a 29 per cent tariff? Well, there is no product, so it’s not going to have an effect,” said Gye Duncan, who owns a tax consultancy on the island.
“They probably don’t even know where Norfolk Island is in the world. It’s just probably an anomaly.”
