The territory does have a fishery but no buildings or human habitation whatsoever.
Despite this, 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. It was not immediately clear what those goods were.
In the five years prior, imports from Heard Island and McDonald Islands ranged from US$15,000 (A$24,000) to US$325,000 (A$518,000) per year.
The TLD idea is fucking retarded. The real reason is the actual import/export data does show goods moving around.
The real issue here is that the admin didn't take their time to validate their numbers before announcing. Should have also put a $ cap on which countries are even worth considering. If a rock in the Pacific exports $5 and imports $1.50, that's not a trade imbalance that anyone should be giving a shit about. I get that they're trying to play up how many countries the US has a trade deficit with, but it doesn't work if no one takes the numbers seriously.
One bill of lading, from September 2024, relates to parts for a PET recycling plant, shipped from Starlinger Co in Vienna to Oakland California, which lists the address of Starlinger as being in “Vienna, Heard Island and McDonald Islands”
We're talking about clerical errors on single shipments instead of the fact that China's been fucking the US over for decades.
Oh and the funniest one, the Diego Garcia/BIOT one is because of brilliant doctors and engineers...
shipments from Indian suppliers being mislabelled as coming from “British Indian Ocean Territory”
Mmmm, yes and no.
The analytical approach is fine and you make a good point about ratios being meaningless at super low levels. However sometimes simple things can have massive effects. Like the DOGE "name five things" email that should have taken any legit worker and even non retarded bad workers a whole three minutes to type up. But the chaps it created was more valuable than the stated purpose. So it's more of a shake up or a shit test than anything else. Throw everything at the wall, the bad actors will retaliate, the good actors will come to the table, and those who aren't fucking us to begin with or know they were and are okay with the retaliation will just shrug and carry on.
The TLD idea is fucking retarded. The real reason is the actual import/export data does show goods moving around.
The real issue here is that the admin didn't take their time to validate their numbers before announcing. Should have also put a $ cap on which countries are even worth considering. If a rock in the Pacific exports $5 and imports $1.50, that's not a trade imbalance that anyone should be giving a shit about. I get that they're trying to play up how many countries the US has a trade deficit with, but it doesn't work if no one takes the numbers seriously.
We're talking about clerical errors on single shipments instead of the fact that China's been fucking the US over for decades.
Oh and the funniest one, the Diego Garcia/BIOT one is because of brilliant doctors and engineers...
Mmmm, yes and no. The analytical approach is fine and you make a good point about ratios being meaningless at super low levels. However sometimes simple things can have massive effects. Like the DOGE "name five things" email that should have taken any legit worker and even non retarded bad workers a whole three minutes to type up. But the chaps it created was more valuable than the stated purpose. So it's more of a shake up or a shit test than anything else. Throw everything at the wall, the bad actors will retaliate, the good actors will come to the table, and those who aren't fucking us to begin with or know they were and are okay with the retaliation will just shrug and carry on.