US says dozens of countries helped China dodge Trump's tariffs
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- The White House reported Thursday that more than 40 countries helped China evade US tariffs by routing exports through nations with lower American import duties, with named countries including Canada, India, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea.
- Peter Navarro said the practice cost "American jobs and billions in revenue," while the White House estimated between $30bn and roughly $300bn in goods were rerouted from higher-tariff to lower-tariff countries.
- The White House described the process as "fraud cloaked in paperwork" and a "Great Transshipment Scam," noting China used third-country stopovers and repackaging to obscure origin, prompting the US to deploy AI tools to catch transshipment.
- China's embassy in Washington called the measures "trade wars have no winners" and insisted that "any unilateral actions or agreements concerning transshipped goods must not target or harm the interests of third parties."
- Analyst Chang Pao Li of Singapore Management University said the report could strengthen Washington's bargaining position before the Trump-Xi September meeting, arguing any trade settlement must address third-country routing alongside direct Chinese exports.
- Trump's April 2025 sweeping tariffs were struck down by the US Supreme Court, but the president has continued introducing new levies through alternative legal levers, with sanctions continuing to flow between Washington and Beijing despite a May 2025 pause.
Why it matters: The report gives Washington a fresh lever ahead of the Trump-Xi summit by reframing tariff evasion as a global network problem rather than a bilateral one — meaning countries with deeper Chinese supply-chain integration now face additional risk and costs, and any settlement must cover third-country routing alongside direct Chinese exports.
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