That’s a good point. I know that in the US, pretty much everything costs more in Hawaii. Though…hmm. I’d bet that a big chunk of that might be the Jones Act, which requires any shipping from a US port to a US port without intermediate stops abroad to be done on a US-flagged ship with American crewmen, which is quite expensive. Net result, as I understand it, is that a lot of shipping between US destinations will do an intermediate stop at a port abroad. That works for, say, the Caribbean. But there isn’t any non-US territory anywhere near Hawaii, so a shipper won’t be able to readily use that approach.

googles

Yeah, it sounds like it’s a factor and a bit of a touchy point for Hawaii.

https://www.grassrootinstitute.org/jonesact/

The 1920 Jones Act requires that all cargo transported between U.S. ports be on ships that are U.S. flagged, built and mostly owned and crewed by Americans. It is well known that the act adds to Hawaii’s high cost of living…

So I dunno if it’d be as bad for Svalbard.

Also, Svalbard’s gonna be cold – even if it’s warmer than places at a similar latitude, it’s still in the Arctic – so heating costs will be higher there than most other places that people live.