A member of Donald Trump’s administration has tried to defend the president’s decision to tax uninhabited islands. Billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the decision was made so “there are no countries left off” the tariff list, and even suggested ships could stop at the remote outpost – which counts penguins as its “citizens” – to avoid the duties.
Lutnick was grilled on CBS’s Face Nation, where presenters asked him if the 10 per cent levy on the Heard and McDonald islands were a mistake after accusations it may have been dreamed up by Chat GPT.
“What happens is, if you leave anything off the list, the countries that try to basically arbitrage America go through those countries to us,’’ he claimed. “Any country. Like, we had tariffs — the president put tariffs on China, right, in 2018 — and then what China started doing is they started going through other countries to America,’’ Lutnick said.
“They just built through other countries, through America. And so the president knows that, he’s tired of it, and he’s going to fix that. So basically he said, ‘Look, I can’t let any part of the world be a place where China or other countries can ship through them.’ “
The show’s moderator responded by repeating, “Through the Heard Islands” – fully aware that the islands are covered in glaciers and last visited by people nearly 10 years ago. Lutnick doubled down, saying Trump is trying to end the system of “ridiculous loopholes”. Theislands are considered a part of Australian territory. Their trade minister said the tariffs are “clearly a mistake”.
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London’s FTSE 100 has risen in the first few minutes of trading on Tuesday, as optimism returned to the financial markets after several days of heavy losses caused by Trump’s Liberation Day announcement last week.
The index, which tracks the UK’s top 100 listed companies, was up more than 1% shortly after markets opened on Tuesday. All other indexes on the London Stock Exchange were also in the green. It comes after Europe’s biggest stock markets opened and closed at a noticeable drop, with some falling up to 10% on the day.
It comes after China said it would “fight to the end” and take countermeasures against the United States to safeguard its own interests after President Trump threatened an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports.
The Commerce Ministry said the US‘ imposition of “so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs” on China is “completely groundless and is a typical unilateral bullying practice.” China, the world’s second-largest economy, has taken retaliatory tariffs and the ministry hinted in its latest statement that more may be coming.
“The countermeasures China has taken are aimed at safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests, and maintaining the normal international trade order. They are completely legitimate,” the ministry said. The US threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake and once again exposes the blackmailing nature of the US. China will never accept this. If the US insists on its own way, China will fight to the end,” it added.
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