The US Commerce Secretary has defended the country’s decision to impose tariffs on a group of uninhabited islands, which are populated only by penguins and seals.

The imposition of tariffs on the Heard and McDonald islands were meant to close “ridiculous loopholes” and would prevent other countries from shipping through the islands to reach the US, Howard Lutnick told the BBC’s US partner CBS.

Authorities in Australia reacted with surprise last week when they found out about the tariffs on the island, which sits 4,000km (2,485 mi) from Australia.

Its trade minister Don Farrell told news outlet ABC that the imposition of tariffs was “clearly a mistake” indicating a “rushed process”.

But when asked about the inclusion of the Australian territory on Trump’s tariffs list, Lutnick said: “If you leave anything off the list, the countries that try to basically arbitrage America go through those countries to us.”

“The President knows that, he’s tired of it, and he’s going to fix that.”

Lutnick’s interview was one of several given by US government officials to defend the president’s new tariffs after all three major stock indexes in the US plunged more than 5% on Friday, in the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.