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According to the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/donald-trump-tariffs-antarctica-uninhabited-heard-mcdonald-islands https://www.thegua

by rob74 2y ago

According to the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/donald-trump-tariffs-antarctica-uninhabited-heard-mcdonald-islands https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/donald-trump...): > Despite this, according to export data from the World Bank, the US imported US$1.4m (A$2.23m) of products from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022, nearly all of which was “machinery and electrical” imports. It was not immediately clear what those goods were. In the five years prior, imports from Heard Island and McDonald Islands ranged from US$15,000 (A$24,000) to US$325,000 (A$518,000) per year. Maybe someone has accidentally uncovered some kind of tax evasion scheme here?

Symbiote 2y ago
It could be a clerical error — intending to choose Haiti or Honduras, or maybe Hong Kong, and clicking or typing HM by mistake. Or maybe OCR is used somewhere and has made the error.
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  That may be the stupidest explanation I have heard yet. It must be the correct one then. :-)
  - Symbiote 2y ago
    The Guardian are reporting essentially this, it's clerical errors of some kind: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/04/revealed-how-trump-tariffs-slugged-norfolk-island-and-uninhabited-heard-and-mcdonald-islands https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/04/revea...
matt-p 2y ago
Bizarre, tax/tariff evasion or "Mistake" does seem like the most likely explanation - yet US$1.4m is too little to bother evading tax on really. I mean that could be a refit on a boat or something -- $1.4Mn is literally nothing.
- piokoch 2y ago
  Now it is 1.4 mln, in future this could be 1000 more, if this will help with overcoming tariffs. Check what happened with Germany export to Kazakhstan in 2022.
  - matt-p 2y ago
    Of course, several of these islands with 10% tarrifs are ex-colonies of various EU countries. Of course any french manufacturer will send goods to the islands (0%) then from there to the US (10%) rather than pay 20%. It's obvious, then the US will notice and the island will go to 20% and so on. It's all completely hateful.
  - 4ggr0 2y ago
    > Check what happened with Germany export to Kazakhstan in 2022 Can you elaborate? Tried searching for it, all i found is that Kazakhstan reported 500M exports to Germany, when it was actually 7B. But you were talking about Exports from Germany to Kazakhstan, which I wasn't able to find.
    - gostsamo 2y ago
      gp implies that those are goods which ended up in Russia after the EU war sanctions.
      - 4ggr0 2y ago
        oh, that would make sense, yes. AFAIK Turkey was also used a lot to accidentally ship goods to Russia.
- chris_wot 2y ago
  Pity the Faulkland Islands, population 3,200 and about a million penguins. They have a 42% tariff. Are you feeling great again, Americans?
  - matt-p 2y ago

by rob74 2y ago

Symbiote 2y ago

It could be a clerical error — intending to choose Haiti or Honduras, or maybe Hong Kong, and clicking or typing HM by mistake. Or maybe OCR is used somewhere and has made the error.

JKCalhoun 2y ago
That may be the stupidest explanation I have heard yet. It must be the correct one then. :-)
- Symbiote 2y ago
  The Guardian are reporting essentially this, it's clerical errors of some kind: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/04/revealed-how-trump-tariffs-slugged-norfolk-island-and-uninhabited-heard-and-mcdonald-islands https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/04/revea...

matt-p 2y ago

Bizarre, tax/tariff evasion or "Mistake" does seem like the most likely explanation - yet US$1.4m is too little to bother evading tax on really. I mean that could be a refit on a boat or something -- $1.4Mn is literally nothing.

piokoch 2y ago
Now it is 1.4 mln, in future this could be 1000 more, if this will help with overcoming tariffs. Check what happened with Germany export to Kazakhstan in 2022.
- matt-p 2y ago
  Of course, several of these islands with 10% tarrifs are ex-colonies of various EU countries. Of course any french manufacturer will send goods to the islands (0%) then from there to the US (10%) rather than pay 20%. It's obvious, then the US will notice and the island will go to 20% and so on. It's all completely hateful.
- 4ggr0 2y ago
  > Check what happened with Germany export to Kazakhstan in 2022 Can you elaborate? Tried searching for it, all i found is that Kazakhstan reported 500M exports to Germany, when it was actually 7B. But you were talking about Exports from Germany to Kazakhstan, which I wasn't able to find.
  - gostsamo 2y ago
    gp implies that those are goods which ended up in Russia after the EU war sanctions.
    - 4ggr0 2y ago
      oh, that would make sense, yes. AFAIK Turkey was also used a lot to accidentally ship goods to Russia.
chris_wot 2y ago
Pity the Faulkland Islands, population 3,200 and about a million penguins. They have a 42% tariff. Are you feeling great again, Americans?
- matt-p 2y ago