MELBOURNE, Australia — (AP) — Jesse Schiller and Rachel Evans are likely the only business owners on Australia’s Norfolk Island to be directly affected by the Trump administration’s tariffs, as the South Pacific outpost they call home exports nothing to the United States.
The Canadian couple, both aged 41, own a business that makes plastic-free hair accessories under the brand Kooshoo. Vancouver-born Schiller said he and his Norfolk Island-born wife are likely the only business owners on the island that will pay elevated tariffs — and they will pay at the rates imposed on Japan and India, where the goods are manufactured. Around 80% of Kooshoo’s business is with the United States.
“Kooshoo” means “feeling good” in the English-Tahitian creole known as Norf’k or Norfuk that’s spoken among this remote population of 2,000 people 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of Sydney.
“We’re probably the most affected business” on Norfolk Island, Schiller said.
Norfolk Island was a shock inclusion in the Trump …