Probably because they had separate entries in a "list of countries" which they picked as a base for their list? I don't really think there was more thought put into that, especially not for the countries who "only" got the "baseline" tariff of 10%. Interestingly though, Russia seems to have been completely left out, while Ukraine gets 10%.
The Orange Emperor has a huge hard on to make Ukraine suffer ever since it led to his first impeachment. Zelenski didn't kiss the ring so down they go.
Even the UK gets 10% which is truly mad given we have balanced trade and tarrifs (if anything the US tariffed the UK more than they did them).
^So essentially MAX(10%,(imports-exports)/imports)
The EO and Annexes are not on the Federal Register website yet but on the Whitehouse website it has EO[1] and Annex I[2] and Annex II[3].
I do not see Russia or Ukraine mentioned in any of those so I would assume both get the base "10 percent" under section 2/3.
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regu...
[2] https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Annex-...
[3] https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Annex-...
Also imposing high tariffs now would reduce the power of the threat to raise tarrifs: https://www.ft.com/content/ec99b3c2-9f4d-4f34-9a01-f97d98131...
So is Iran, and yet Iran is still on the list.
But then, I have no idea if the reasonable explanation applies. Are the other countries not in the list Iran and Cuba?
The others make sense since they have worse tarrifs (though different, yes)
The Trump admin couldn’t arrange a pissup in a brewery.
Which might explain why the British Indian Ocean Territory - population, one US military base - has such a high tariff. The BIOT, aka Diego Garcia, has the ccTLD .io.