Trump slaps tariffs on Arctic islands with almost no exports

By Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer April 4, 2025
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The uninhabited volcanic island of Jan Mayen and the Svalbard archipelago are among the bizarre places Trump has imposed tariffs on.
The main “export product” from Ny-Ålesund, the world’s northernmost settlement at nearly 79° North, is science. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Coal was traditionally the largest export product the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard could offer. Not any more. The Russian coal mine in Barentsburg can hardly produce enough to keep the local power plant running, the rest is shipped to Murmansk.

Norway’s last small coal mine, No. 7 near Longyearbyen, is about to shut down within weeks.

What exactly Donald Trump has in mind when he Wednesday introduced a 10% tariff on the Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard is unclear.

The fuzzy question why Donald Trump imposes a 10% reciprocal tariff on Svalbard and Jan Mayen is unanswered. Screenshot from White House fact-sheet.

There is no permanent population at Jan Mayen. Less than 40 people are on rotation basis serving the Meteorological Station and the Norwegian Armed Forces presence at the tiny island which is located between northern Norway and Greenland.

Svalbard has a population of about 3,000. Among them are 297 inhabitants in the two Russian settlements of Barentsburg and Pyramiden. A few hundred are on rotational basis at the science town of Ny-Ålesund, while Longyearbyen is the largest settlement with about 2,500 people.

The main businesses in Longyearbyen are tourism, science and education. The small Svalbard brewery offers beer for export, but the United States is unlikely high up on the sales statistics for it’s online shop.

Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
While the Arctic islands under Norwegian sovereignty get a 10% tariff, the U.S. president slapped a 16% tariff on mainland Norway for everything exported to the United States.
Svalbard and Jan Mayen are not the only far-away islands, uninhabited or with very little population, that were included as the White House on April 2nd opened for a global trade war.

The sub-Antarctic Australian external territory of Heard and McDonald islands, mostly populated by penguins, face a similar 10% tariff from Donald Trump like the Norwegian Arctic islands.

Another remote location on the 10% list is Tokelau island, near New Zealand, with less than 2,000 inhabitants.

Two dictatorships in Europe are excluded from Trump’s global-hitting sweeping tariffs; Russia and Belarus.

Located in Kirkenes, Norway, just a few kilometres from the borders to Russia and Finland, the Barents Observer is dedicated to cross-border journalism in Scandinavia, Russia and the wider Arctic.

As a non-profit stock company that is fully owned by its reporters, its editorial decisions are free of regional, national or private-sector influence. It has been a partner to ABJ and its predecessors since 2016.