Hit by 50% customs duties, St-Pierre and Miquelon is the most taxed territory in the world by the Trump administration’s customs measures

Photo courtesy of BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP. Retrieved from la1ere.francetvinfo.fr

“Today we begin to make America rich again,” declared Donald Trump during the press conference held Wednesday, April 2, at the White House. The American president and his administration thus unveiled a long list of countries to which new and heavy customs tariffs will now be applied.

This list includes countries and territories, some of which are even uninhabited, which leaves many internet users perplexed as to how it was compiled.

It includes, for example, the Heard Island and McDonald Islands, deserted and therefore not affected by any trade whatsoever with the American giant, or even with the rest of the world.

Saint-Pierre and Miquelon: Few Exports and Heavy Customs Duties

Another territory of interest is the fiscally independent French archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Along with Lesotho, it is the country on which the Americans impose the heaviest customs duties, namely 50% for tiny exports to the United States. How is this possible?

It appears that the Trump administration’s calculation method is based solely on the 2024 trade balance, a trade balance that is not at all representative of the reality of trade for the French territory.

The calculation was therefore made by taking into account the US trade deficit with each targeted territory before dividing it by the territory’s exports to them. For the archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, the year 2024 is an exception, with a single trade taking place in July, while somewhere in the United States, someone purchased 3.4 million worth of goods. Primarily seafood.