'No countries left off': US commerce secretary defends tariffs on uninhabited islands

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday backed President Donald Trump's "reciprocal" tariff policy, saying including uninhabited islands is a precautionary measure to close off any possible loopholes in trade enforcement.

During an appearance on CBS News's Face the Nation program, host Margaret Brennan questioned the inclusion of remote regions such as the Heard and McDonald Islands on the tariff list President Trump presented. She pointed out that these territories “don't export to the United States and are quite literally inhabited by penguins,” and asked: “Why do they face a 10% tariff? Did you use AI to generate this?”

“The idea is that there are no countries left off,” Lutnick explained, emphasizing that excluding any could allow others to exploit the system.

“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 said.

Citing China's reaction to Trump's 2018 tariffs, he said: “They just built through other countries, through America.”

Lutnick emphasized that “the president knows that. He's tired of it, and he's going to fix that,” explaining Trump's reasoning. “Look, I can't let any part of the world be a place where China or other countries can ship through them,” which led him to eliminate “those loopholes, these ridiculous loopholes.”

Lutnick said Trump views fixing the trade deficit as a matter of national security.

“We need to make medicine. We need to make semiconductors. We need to make ships. We need to have steel and aluminum,” he said, stressing the importance of rebuilding American industry.

According to Lutnick, Trump's message is clear: “‘We need the greatness of America to actually be built in America,'” and he's had enough of the US being “ripped off by the rest of the world.”