An island of less than 6,000 people has been hit with the highest tariff rates in the world by the USA.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced wide-ranging tariffs that the US would be imposing on imports from the rest of the world.
The president has put a universal 10 per cent tariff on all imports into the US, with higher rates for what Trump has called the “worst offenders.”
This includes the European Union (20%), China (54%) and Japan (24%).
The UK has been hit with a 10 per cent tariff, along with the global 25 per cent tariff on car exports to the US.
But all of these rates have been trumped by the tariff that Trump has slapped on… St. Pierre et Miquelon, a French overseas territory with a population of just 5,800 people.
The tiny island now has a 99 per cent tariff on its exports to the USA. This bizarre decision is down to the way the Trump administration worked out the tariff rates for each country. They basically did this by taking the trade deficit the US had with every country and dividing it by the amount that country exports to the US.
In July 2024, St Pierre et Miquelon appears to have exported $3.4m worth of goods to the US in one deal. Because the minuscule territory only bought $100k worth of goods that year, this has landed them with the highest tariff rate in the world.
French political analyst François Valentin explained things in a bit more depth in a thread on X.
This isn’t the only bizarre example from the Trump tariffs. The president has also decided to impose a 10 per cent tariff on an uninhabited island which is only home to seals and penguins.
Your guess is as good as ours…
Related: Government says ‘nothing is off the table’ as Donald Trump slams UK with 10% tariff