Trump has put taxes on trade with an island where there is only an American base / where it is
Satellite image with Military Base from Diego Garcia. Credit Line: Handout / AFP / Profimedia
The “reciprocal” rates announced by US President Donald Trump also target a distant, disputed island, which houses an important American military base in the Indian Ocean, although the tax seems to be a symbolic measure without any significant impact, Newsweek reports.
Trump announced on Wednesday, April 2, a 10% rate for all US imports, in what he called the “Liberation Day” of America. The US president then presented a personalized tariff table to be charged to the US commercial partners.
Trump announced 20% rates for 34% imported products for China and 10% for the United Kingdom.
On the list of taxes of 10% customs, there are also small groups of small islands, some completely uninhabited. This is the case of the islands Heard and McDonald, covered by glaciers and populated by penguins, but also of the distant Archipelago Chagos, which is part of the British territory in the Indian Ocean.
Diego Garcia, the largest island in Chagos, hosts the common US and Britain's common naval and air base.
It is one of the main ways of the American army to design its power in Indo-Pacific, a region to which the Trump administration has published its attention, to the detriment of its long-term relationship with Europe.
However, experts say that it is unlikely that the new rates applied to the British territory in the Indian Ocean have a significant impact, as it has no permanent residents, except for the military and associated staff stationed at Diego Garcia.
“The rates will not have practical effects on the British territory in the Indian Ocean and the Chagos islands, because the over the seas are exempt from the rates,” said Eric Gosson, specialist in economic wars and economics professor at the University of Surrey, UK, for Newsweek.
For her part, Emma Salisbury, a researcher in the field of maritime power, explained that “the imposition of tariffs for a number of island enclaves around the world, some of which are uninhabited, is difficult to analyze as a strategic choice.”
“There are no commercial exports from the British territory of the Indian Ocean to the United States to perceive a tariff,” said Salisbury.
The Chagos archipelago is involved in a long-term dispute between the Government of Great Britain and Mauritius.
The British government indicated on Tuesday that the Trump administration has signed an agreement between the United Kingdom and Mauritius, announced in October, for the transfer of the sovereignty of the Chagos islands to Mauritius. Within the agreement, the United Kingdom will rent the Diego Garcia base for a minimum period of 99 years.
If the agreement will be concluded, it would be logical for the Chagos Islands to be subject to the tariff allocated to the island of Mauritius, which is facing a 40%customs tariff.
