United States Accuses Over 40 Countries of Helping China Evade Tariffs
The White House on August 13 2026 published a report that placed more than 40 countries at the centre of a growing trade dispute. The document, titled The Great Transshipment Scam, accuses those nations of helping Chinese exporters send goods into the United States under lower duties than those applied to direct shipments from China. The Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, led by Peter Navarro, said the practice has cost the United States tens of billions of dollars and has become more sophisticated since tariffs on China were first raised in 2018.
According to the report, Chinese goods are moved through third countries, given limited processing, relabelled, repackaged or invoiced in a way that changes the declared origin. The White House described this as fraud cloaked in paperwork. It said the gap between high duties on Chinese products and lower rates on goods from other partners has created a commercial incentive to reroute cargo. Navarro told reporters that China has used extremely sophisticated methods to launder exports through a shadow network that now spans more than 40 countries.
The White House cited a range of estimates for the scale of the trade. Government and private analyses put annual transshipment volumes between 40 billion dollars and 303 billion dollars. A central figure used in public briefing was around 60 billion to 75 billion dollars. One analysis associated with the Commerce Department said Mexico, India and Vietnam together accounted for about 67 billion dollars of rerouted goods in 2025, with an estimated 28 billion dollars in lost tariff revenue from that group alone. Other official and private estimates of annual lost tariff income ran from about 19 billion dollars to 34 billion dollars.
The report grouped the named countries into three tiers. The first tier, described as diversified leaders at scale, included Canada, the European Union, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan. The second tier, described as scale leaders with significant economic integration with China, included Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. The third tier covered a larger set of smaller economies that the White House said offered logistics, free zones, ports or weaker customs enforcement. That group included Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Laos, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.
The administration said the sectors most affected in the United States include electrical equipment, integrated circuits, aluminium products and motor components. Under mid range assumptions, the White House linked the practice to about 450000 displaced jobs and a GDP impact estimated between 113 billion dollars and 150 billion dollars. Navarro argued that every dollar lost through this channel is a dollar taken from American workers, manufacturers and taxpayers.
The timing of the report added to its political weight. It arrived weeks before a planned meeting in Washington between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and after a year of shifting tariff rates that created larger differences between countries. The White House said those differences encouraged not only Chinese exporters but also other economies hit by high American duties to copy similar routing models. Officials indicated that new enforcement tools, including artificial intelligence to detect suspect shipments, would be used to tighten origin checks at the border.
The accusation does not claim that all trade through the named countries is unlawful. The report itself noted that several of the largest partners also conduct substantial legitimate commerce with the United States. What Washington is challenging is the portion of flows that it says are designed to disguise Chinese content and avoid the higher duty. For global business, the August 13 report is a signal that origin rules, customs paperwork and third country processing will face closer scrutiny in the months ahead, with consequences that could reach supply chains far beyond China and the United States.
