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US defends tariffs on remote island of penguins and seals (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 week ago (3 children)

tl;dr: They're claiming that it was to "prevent countries with tariffs from shipping through there to avoid tariffs."

The United States alleged the islands exported more goods to the United States than they imported, an allegation that appeared to be calculated from incorrect trade data. An analysis of U.S. import data and shipping records by The Guardian indicated some shipments were incorrectly labeled as coming from the remote islands instead of their correct countries of origin. 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.[39]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Great, now they simply have to claim their shipments came from Russia and they'll be exempt.

Hope you know Russian!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

... Why were we allowing items into the country that were shipped through an uninhabited island to begin with? Like, that should be the red flag... They should treat it like losing your parking garage ticket, you pay the top rate.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

**... some shipments were incorrectly labeled as coming from the remote islands instead of their correct countries of origin. **

I even put it in bold.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah...I saw that. Hence my comment. Why would they allow that in? Even if it was labeled as that, they could do like I said in my comment and slap the highest tariff available on it - if that were the actual goal, and not an obvious lie to cover up their ineptitude.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I agree, it's insane that customs ever accepted a fictional port on uninhabited islands as a point of origin in the first place. That's the loophole they should close. It does appear that that's a thing that did actually happen though, so it's not a complete fabrication. I'd say customs should have been authorized to confiscate any such good until a non-fictional provinence was proven.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

LOL, $1.4 large. My Lowe's cranks that much out in a week or two. Imagine how insignificant a single big-box store is in the grand scheme of the American economy. If that store fell into a literal black hole it would barely disrupt the local economy in this little town.

But by god we're going to stop this tariff avoidance!