Five places on Donald Trump’s Liberation Day Tariff chart you may not have heard of

Tariffs against the UK, EU, China and other major economies made the headlines - but a smaller territories also made the list

On Wednesday, April 2, US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs against countries and territories across the world.

Announcing the measure in the White House Rose Garden, on what he described as ‘Liberation Day’, Mr Trump claimed they were reciprocal tariffs - with a standard 25 per cent tariff on all cars produced outside the USA.

Here in the UK, the big news was the fact that there is now a 10 per cent tariff on other British goods crossing the Atlantic to the States.

Producing a chart to illustrate his new tariffs, Mr Trump also announced 20 per cent tariffs against the 27 European Union nations, 34 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods and 24 per cent against Japan.

Shortly afterwards, the White House published a full list of all affected countries and territories on X.

One that made headlines immediately in the USA was the Heard and McDonald Islands, which now faces a 10 per cent tariff on all goods sent to the United States.

This would be bad news for the island’s inhabitants, if anyone lived there. The islands, sitting around halfway between Madagascar and Antarctica are an Australian external territory that is completely uninhabited and which takes two weeks to sail to by boat from Australia.

However it was not the only slightly unusual entry on the extensive list. Here are five more places on the list you may not have heard of.

Svalbard and Jan Mayen:

Svalbard and Jan Mayen are both administered by Norway - with the Svalbard archipelago sitting high in the Arctic and boasting the world’s most northern town with more than a thousand people, Longyearbyen.

Along with the tiny Russian colony of Barentsburg, which exists under the Svalbard Treaty allowing signatory nations to mine on the islands, Longyearbyen is one of very few settlements on the island.

Once a centre of whaling and mining, tourism now makes up a major part of Svalbard’s economy, apart from the coal mine at Barentsburg that sends its resources back to Russia.

Jan Mayen meanwhile is completely uninhabited aside from Norwegian scientists from the country’s weather forecaster and the Norwegian armed forces.

If these areas export anything to the US, they face a 10 per cent tariff - below the 15 per cent for goods from Norway itself.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon:

It is well known that France once claimed a significant area of North America, including areas such as Louisiana in the USA and Quebec in Canada.

What is less well known is that France continues to hold a tiny group of eight islands off the Canadian coast.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon, near the coast of Labrador, is home to just under 6,000 people - who have a right to French citizenship as the islands are a French ‘overseas collectively’ - with the islands even sending a representative to the country’s National Assembly and voting in the presidential elections.

Fishing is a traditional part of the island group’s economy, although efforts have been made to diversify this.

While Metropolitan France will face 20 per cent tariffs under Donald Trump’s announcement,, the islands will face a tariff of 50 per cent for anything exported to the US - which the White House claims is a response to 99 per cent tariffs charged on goods to the USA.

Nauru:

A tiny Pacific Island nation, Nauru has one of the smallest populations of any independent country in the world.

Slightly under 12,000 people call the nation home, with the country heavily dependent on Foreign Aid from Australia and others.

The island’s economy was for many years based on Phosphate mining, however these reserves have now been depleted.

As a result other income streams include selling the rights for people to fish in Nauru’s territorial waters and hosting an Australian immigration detention facility.

Goods from Nauru that make their way to the US now face a 30 per cent tariff, which the US Government says is in response to 59 per cent tariffs for American goods heading to the country.

Curaçao

The Kingdom of the Netherlands continues to include a number of islands in the Caribbean - with these forming constituent countries in the kingdom along with the Netherlands itself.

Of these, Aruba is perhaps the best known, but it is not the only one.

Curaçao, which consists of the main island and a smaller uninhabited island, is home to around 160,000 people and is considered a 'constituent island country' within the kingdom.

The island, which boasts a high standard of living, is best known for its tourism and financial services trades.

As a result of the Liberation Day announcement, it will now face a 10 per cent tariff - lower than the 20 per cent imposed on the Netherlands itself as part of the EU.

Norfolk Island:

Sitting in the Pacific Ocean, between New Zealand and New Caledonia (an overseas territory of France), Norfolk Island, like the Heard and McDonald Islands, is an Australian territory.

Like the Heard and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island now faces a 10 per cent tariff on all goods sent to the United States - however unlike the Heard and McDonald Islands, people actually live there.

The island is home to around 2,000 people and it's main source of income is tourism - with direct flights bringing visitors in from Australia and New Zealand.