Australia came out of the US’s April tariff tirade relatively well, facing the lowest baseline rate of 10%. By Leatherbiz.

Observers all over the world noted that this 10% rate would even apply to a remote external Australian territory, Heard Island and McDonald Island, even though it is home only to penguins and two active volcanoes.

When news about the territory broke, Australia’s trade minister, Don Farrell, said in a television interview: “Poor old penguins. I don’t know what they did to Mr Trump.”

The penguins’ paradise still came off better than another external Australian territory, Norfolk Island. This South Pacific island, which is around 1,500 kilometres east of Brisbane, faces tariff rates, not of 10%, but of 29% for exports to the US. And, as with many other difficulties around the world, leather is to blame, at least in part.

Norfolk Island has a population of just over 2,000 people. It has some exports, notably of seeds for tropical plants, but local people have said they have no knowledge of anyone exporting these seeds or any other product to the US.

In the US, though, official documents do record imports from Norfolk Island, including a consignment of leather for footwear production. The Wall Street Journal has suggested the most likely explanation is that the origin of these goods was labelled incorrectly on their arrival at US ports.

As far as we can tell, Norfolk Island does not produce any leather, but it does have a cattle herd and its cows often attract attention because they roam free and dominate the landscape. But the health of its cattle population has been under threat since a ban on imports of live animals from Australia came into force in 2016.

Cattle farming is the oldest industry on the island, but years of inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity led to declines in carcass weights and meat quality. Last year, though, and embryo transfer and artificial insemination programme began and local farmers are now confident of improvement.

There are no official plans to begin exporting beef from the island to the US.