Donald Trump imposes tariffs on islands inhabited by penguins during ‘Liberation Day’ speech

On Tuesday (2 April), United States president, Donald Trump, announced his highly-anticipated 'Liberation Day' tariffs.

Speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, the 78-year-old began the spiel stating: "This is Liberation Day. We've been waiting for a long time, April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to 'Make America Wealthy Again'."

During the speech, he showed a 'Reciprocal Tariffs' chart to the audience, where he revealed exactly what tariffs he planned on rolling out for each given country.

However, amidst the list, Trump also imposed on tariffs on a number of islands which are, um, inhabited solely by penguins.

Before we get into that, let's take a look at the tariffs he's imposed on the rest of the world.

Trump revealed that the United Kingdom will face tariffs of 10 percent as he said levies will not be fully reciprocal rate but will instead be half the tariff rate.

He also said that China was imposing tariffs of 67 percent and declared that the US would impose a 34 percent tariff back.

The EU faces also faces 20 percent tariffs.

Brazil and Singapore were hit with 10 percent tariffs, the same level as Britain while rates ranged from 10 percent to 49 percent on the chart he held up.

Switzerland faces levies of 31 percent, South Africa 30 percent, Indonesia 32 percent, Vietnam 46 percent and Cambodia 49 percent.

And the tariffs didn't stop there as a group of totally uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, which are covered in glaciers and home to penguins, have also found themselves hit with a 10 percent tariff on goods.

Trump announced his 'Liberation Day' tariffs at the White House yesterday (2 April) (Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty Images)

The islands in question, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of Australia, are considered some of the most remote places on earth - which are only

accessible only via a two-week boat voyage from Perth on Australia’s west coast.

The last time a person visited the remote island is believed to be nearly 10 years ago.

Heard Island and McDonald Islands are included in a list of several 'external territories' which ate listed separately in the tariff list to Australia, which will see a 10 percent tariff imposed on its goods.

"Nowhere on earth is safe," Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Thursday (3 April).

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