Chinese exporters ‘wash’ products in third countries to avoid Donald Trump’s tariffs

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Chinese exporters make efforts to avoid definitions imposed by US President Donald Trump by charging their goods across the third countries to hide their real origin.

Chinese social media platforms are mired in advertisements for “washing the place of completion”, while the flow of goods from China has sparked a warning in neighboring countries, cautiously not to become the actually directed trade sites for the United States.

The increasing use of the tactic confirms the exporters’ fears that the new definitions of up to 145 percent imposed by Trump on Chinese goods will deprive them of reaching one of their most important markets.

“The tariff is very high.” “[But] We can sell goods to neighboring countries, then sell them to the neighboring countries to the United States, and will reduce. “

American trade laws require that goods be subject to a “major transformation” in a country, including treatment or manufacturing that add great value, to qualify there for customs tariff purposes.

But advertisements on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu provides the help of exporters to charge goods to countries like Malaysia, where they will be issued with a new establishment certificate and then sent to the United States.

“The United States has imposed a tariff on Chinese products? Transit across Malaysia” to convert “into Southeast Asian goods!” One of the advertisements published this week on Xiaohongshu said through an account under the name “Ruby – Third Country TransyPment”.

“The United States has placed restrictions on Chinese wood floors and table tools?” Wash the origin “in Malaysia for smooth customs clearance!” He added. The person who was contacted by the details provided in the advertisement refused to comment.

South Korea Customs Agency said last month that it had found $ 29.5 billion in foreign products (21 million dollars) with fake origin countries in the first quarter of this year, most of which are coming from China and almost all of them for the United States.

“We are witnessing a sharp increase in recent cases in which our country is used as a transgression of products to avoid different definitions and restrictions due to the commercial policy changes of the United States government,” the agency said in a statement. “We have found many cases where Chinese products were falsified as Korean.”

Last month, the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Vietnam called on local trade societies, exporters and manufacturers to enhance tests on the assets of raw materials and input commodities and prevent the issuance of forgery certificates.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade in Thailand also revealed last month measures to tighten the original checks on the products of the United States to prevent evading customs tariffs.

Ou of Baitai, like many Chinese manufacturers, said that the company has shipped the goods as “free on the plane”, under which buyers took responsibility for the products once they leave the departure port, which reduces the legal risks of the source.

“Customers only need to find outlets in Guangzhou or Chenthen, and as long as [the goods] Go there, we have completed our mission. . .[after that]It is not our business. “

Sales representatives in two logistical companies said that they can charge the goods to Port Clang in Malaysia, where they transfer the elements to local containers and change their signs and packaging. Sales representatives, who refused to call it, said that companies have links with factories in Malaysia that can help in issuing certificates of origin.

One of us said, “The United States must know that.” “It cannot become very crazy, so we control the amount [of orders we take]”

“they [Malaysian customs] Another sales representative said.

Foreign and commercial ministries in China and the Malaysian government did not respond immediately for the suspension requests.

A consultant advised companies in border trade that the originality of the original was one of the main methods that are being employed to avoid the new drawings of Trump. The counselor said that the other was mixing high -cost elements with cheaper goods, so that exporters could claim a lie at a low cost cost for shipments.

The owner of the consumer commodity manufacturing company, based in the southern city of Donganan, said that two local industry associations provided to brokers who provided tariff solutions “the gray zone”.

The owner said: “Basically, I just ship to a Chinese port and take it from there,” adding that the brokers offered the arrangement of solutions for RMB5 only ($ 0.70) per kilogram.

She said: “These agencies said that small and medium enterprises like us can overcome the tariff better because there are always gray areas.” “I hope this is true. The United States is a big market – I don’t want to lose it.”

The spread of efforts to avoid definitions caused anxiety among American business partners. One of the senior executives of the top 10 independent seller in Amazon said they have noticed cases in which the assets of shipments were changed, which risks the confiscation of the American customs authorities.

The CEO said they were reluctant to accept help offers from their Chinese suppliers, such as making them act as a “registration importer” in the United States and pay the customs tariff based on the cost of manufacturing instead of the high cost of purchase of retail stores.

The CEO said they were concerned that the supplier may report wrong value. “You put a lot of confidence in a Chinese resource,” they said.