Trump's tariffs are so far-reaching they include several remote, uninhabited islands

The Trump administration's long list of nations targeted by forthcoming U.S. tariffs includes several territories so remote that they don't have any permanent human residents.

On Wednesday, President Trump announced a baseline 10% tariff on all goods imported to the U.S. and steeper "reciprocal" tariffs on dozens of its trading partners. The amounts range from 49% for Cambodia, to 34% for China and 20% for the European Union.

The two sets of tariffs — which are due to take effect on Saturday and Wednesday, respectively — have rattled markets at home and abroad, prompted talk of retaliation from various countries and threatened to ignite a global trade war.

They also have drawn attention to several places many people have never heard of before — like the Heard Island and McDonald Islands and Jan Mayen — probably since most of them are unoccupied by humans.

The White House has not immediately responded to NPR's questions about why the following places are subject to tariffs, especially since the territories don't have active trade relationships with the U.S.

Heard Island and McDonald Islands 

One prime example is the Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an external Australian territory made up of volcanically active subantarctic islands. They face — at least on paper — what the Trump administration is calling a reciprocal tariff of 10%, even though the islands had zero trade with the U.S. last year, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and have no human population.

The extremely remote islands, which are located in the southwest Indian Ocean about halfway between Australia and South Africa, are home only to a large populations of marine birds and mammals, including seals, albatrosses and penguins.

UNESCO, which designated the islands a World Heritage site in 1997, says they contain "outstanding examples of biological and physical processes continuing in an environment essentially undisturbed by humans."

"The distinctive conservation value of Heard and McDonald — one of the world's rare pristine island ecosystems — lies in the complete absence of alien plants and animals, as well as human impact," the U.N. agency's website says.

The Australian Antarctic Program says the highest level of activity at Heard Island — which is dominated by an active volcano named Big Ben — happens during Australian Antarctic Science expeditions, which occur about every three years and last only a few months.

"At other times the birds and seals have the place to themselves, except for the very occasional visit by a commercial tourist group, private expedition, or periodic fisheries/defence surveillance patrols," it adds.

Those are incredibly rare: The Australian government says that since the first landing on Heard Island in 1855, there have been only been about 240 shore-based visits to the island and only two landings on the McDonald Islands, most recently in 1980.

Prospective visitors must apply for a permit from the Australian Antarctic Division, and can only travel by boat — at least in theory.

"The catch is that Heard Island is a long way from anywhere (approximately two weeks sail from Australia) and you have to pass through some of the roughest seas on the planet to get there, and back home again," the Australian Antarctic Program says.

The White House's inclusion of Heard Island and McDonald Islands on the tariff list has sparked an outpouring of internet searches and memes about the area, many focused on the fact that it is home to more penguins than people.

"BREAKING: A massive protest is happening now on the Heard and McDonald Islands after Trump announced a 10% retaliatory tariff against the islands," one Threads user wrote, accompanied by a video of a penguin colony milling about.

Svalbard and Jan Mayen

Also facing a 10% tariff are Svalbard and Jan Mayen, which Census Bureau data show had no trade with the U.S. last year either.

The remote Norwegian territories, both in the Arctic Ocean, are often mentioned together because of their geographical proximity and the fact that they are collectively designated by the International Organization for Standardization (for statistical purposes). But they are two separate jurisdictions.

Notably, Jan Mayen has no permanent residents. Its population — estimated at 18 in 2019 — consists only of Norwegian military personnel who operate its military aerodrome and meteorological station.

The CIA World Factbook describes it as a "desolate, mountainous island" with a total area of about 144 square miles, slightly more than twice the size of Washington, D.C. It is home to Beerenberg, the northernmost volcano in the world, which last erupted in 1985.

The island — which is named after the Dutch captain who discovered it in 1614 — was largely desolate for centuries, according to Arctic Portal, an Iceland-based nonprofit.

It briefly became a destination for Norwegian fox hunters at the start of the 20th century, leading to the extinction of the species around 1930 — which is when it officially came under Norwegian sovereignty. Jan Mayen was declared a nature reserve in 2010 and has strict regulations on visitors. The government requires non-Norwegians to obtain prior permission before visiting.

Svalbard, in contrast, has a total population of about 2,500, as of the latest data from Norway's statistics bureau.

Svalbard is an archipelago located about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Its largest town and administrative center, Longyearbyen, is the world's northernmost permanent settlement.

On Svalbard, humans are outnumbered by polar bears — Svalbard's tourism bureau says the species' population on the archipelago and Barents Sea is around 3,000 — and people carry firearms for their safety whenever venturing outside the settlements.

"This is one of the few places in the world where it's not uncommon to see mothers pushing a pram while carrying a rifle on their back," Visit Svalbard's website says, adding that "we are all fully aware that we are guests in the realm of the polar bear."

British Indian Ocean Territory

Another target of 10% tariffs is the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), an overseas territory of the U.K. established in 1965. It is an archipelago of islands in the Indian Ocean, about halfway between Africa and Indonesia.

There is no permanent civilian population on the islands, only one of which — called Diego Garcia — has any residents, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The U.S. Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia provides "logistic support to operational forces forward deployed to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf areas," according to its website. The U.S. military also operates telescopes on the island as part of its Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance System for tracking objects in deep space.

The U.S. Department of Defense says roughly 2,400 people live on the island, between joint forces military, DOD civilians and contractors.

In the 1960s and '70s, the U.S. and U.K. forcibly relocated the entire indigenous population — hundreds of people known as Chagossians — from the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia, to Mauritius and the Seychelles in order to build the military base.

Mauritius has long claimed sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. In recent months, it has been negotiating a treaty with Britain to regain control over the archipelago, which would involve the U.K. then leasing the base back for 99 years. The U.K. government said this week that they are close to finalizing the deal after the Trump administration — which was consulted on it — gave its approval.