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Chinese exporters are increasing efforts to avoid the tariffs set by US President Donald Trump by sending their goods through third -seats to hide their true origin.
Chinese social media platforms are awake with ads offering “country washing”, while a commodity entry from China has raised alarm in neighboring countries careful to become positions on stage for the trade actually destined for SH.BA
The increasing use of tactics underlines the fear of exporters that new tariffs up to 145 percent set by Trump for Chinese goods will deprive them of access to one of their most important markets.
“The fee is very high,” said Sarah Ou, a salesman at Baitai Lighting, a centered Chinese city exporter. “(But) We can sell goods in neighboring countries, and then neighboring countries sell them in the United States, and that will decrease.”
US trade laws require that goods undergo “considerable transformation” in one country, usually including processing or production that adds considerable value, to qualify as origin for tariff purposes.
But advertising on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu offer to help exporters send goods to places such as Malaysia, where they will be issued with a new certificate of origin and then sent to the US
“SH.BA has set tariffs on Chinese products? Said an ad posted this week on Xiaohongshu with an account under the name of “Ruby – Transhipment Country Country”.
“SH.BA has placed borders on Chinese wooden floors and containers? Added. A person contacted through the details given in the ad refused to comment further.
The South Korean customs agency said last month had found foreign products worth Won29.5bn ($ 21 million) with counterfeit sites of origin in the first quarter of this year, most of them coming from China and almost all destined for US
“We are seeing a sharp increase in the latest cases when our country is used as a bypass for products to avoid various tariffs and limitations due to US government trade policy changes,” the agency said in a statement. “We have found numerous cases when the origin of Chinese products was forged as Korean.”
Industry and Ministry of Trade in Vietnam last month called on local trade associations, exporters and producers to strengthen controls on the origin of raw materials and entry goods and prevent the issuance of counterfeit certificates.
The Thailand Department of Foreign Trade also last month revealed measures to strengthen origin controls on the products associated for the US to prevent tariff evasion.
Ou and Baitai said that, like many Chinese manufacturers, the company sent goods as “free on board”, under which buyers took responsibility for the products after leaving their departure port, reducing the legal risk to the exporter.
“Customers only need to find ports in Guangzhou or Shenzhen, and as long as (the goods) go there, we have completed our mission.
Sellers in two logistical companies said they could send goods to Port Clang in Malaysia, from where the items would move to local containers and change their labels and packaging. Companies were related to factories in Malaysia that could help issue certificates of origin, said the sellers, who refused to be named.
“The US should know it,” one said. “It can’t go crazy too much, so we’re checking the quantity (the orders we get).”
“They (Malaysian customs) are not very strict,” the other seller said.
China’s Foreign Ministries and Trade and the Malaysian Government did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
A consultant who advises companies in cross -border trade said that washing origin was one of the two main methods used to avoid Trump’s new taxes. The other was to mix high -cost items with cheaper goods, so exporters can fake a lower cost of deliveries, the consultant said.
The owner of a manufacturer of consumer goods based in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan said that two local industry associations had introduced it to the mediator who offered “gray zone” tariff routes.
“Basically I only send to a Chinese port and they get it from there,” the owner said, adding that the intermediaries had offered to organize the solution for only RMB5 ($ 0.70) per kilogram sent.
“These agencies said small and medium -sized enterprises like us can weather the best hit tariff because there are always gray areas,” she said. “Hope it’s true. The US is a big market – I don’t want to miss it.”
Spreading efforts to avoid tariffs has caused concern among US business partners. A senior executive at a 10 independent seller in Amazon said they had noticed cases where the origin of the deliveries had been changed, risking confiscation by US customs authorities.
The executive said they did not want to accept auxiliary offers from their Chinese suppliers, such as to act as the “Record Importer” in the US and the payment of the cost of production than the highest cost of buying the seller.
The executive said they worried that a supplier could report a false value. “You’re trusting a lot in a Chinese supplier,” they said.
