• US President Donald Trump has slapped 10 per cent tariffs on all exports from the Heard and McDonald Islands, barren sub-Antarctic Australian territories. Both islands are uninhabited by humans, but home to thousands of penguins.

• This triggered a meme fest on the Internet, depicting how Penguins, the sole inhabitants of the Heard and McDonald islands, arguing with Trump over tariffs.

• The Trump administration has defended the move. 

• US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explained the idea was to ensure that there were no countries left off.

• It has been reported that the US has had shipments mislabelled as coming from Heard and McDonald Islands, instead of their real countries of origin. The goods that came this way included shipments of aquarium systems, boots, wine and parts for a recycling plant, according to reports. All this when neither the company address nor the port of departure for the shipment, nor the destination port were located in those territories.

• The imposition of tariffs on these islands are meant to close loopholes and prevent other countries from shipping through the islands to reach the US, Lutnick said.

• The Trump administration had also included Norfolk, another Australian island which is 1,600km north-east of Sydney and has a population of 2,188, on the list. It was slapped with a 29 per cent tariff though it has no export relationship with the US.

Key points of Heard Island and McDonald Islands:

• Heard Island and McDonald Islands are a sub-Antarctic island group. The volcanic islands are located in the southern Indian Ocean, about 4,000 km south west of mainland Australia.

• The islands enjoy World Heritage protection and marine reserve status. They are managed by the Australian Antarctic Division.

• The islands are unoccupied by humans and remain one of the world’s least anthropogenically disturbed areas.

• It covers a total area of 658,903 hectares of which about 37,000 hectares is terrestrial, and the remainder marine. 

• The islands are a unique wilderness, containing outstanding examples of biological and physical processes continuing in an environment essentially undisturbed by humans. 

• Heard Island is dominated by Big Ben (an active volcano rising to a height of 2,745 metres), and is largely covered by snow and glaciers. 

• McDonald Island lies 43.5 kilometres due west of Heard Island, and is the major island in the McDonald Islands group.

• McDonald Island is much smaller and is surrounded by several smaller rocks and islands. The only active sub-Antarctic volcanoes are found on these islands.

• 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.

• It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1997.

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