A centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s new trade agreement with Vietnam features a steep 40 percent tariff on transshipped goods.
Transshipment is a trade strategy employed by countries to sidestep tariffs and other trade barriers. Usually, products from one country are shipped to another where they are minimally processed, repackaged, or relabeled to make them appear as if they were manufactured in the second country.
The Chinese regime has long relied on the practice to avoid U.S. trade restrictions, using Vietnam and other countries as vessels for its goods. This effectively lets China avoid higher tariffs.
“One of [China’s] most common workarounds has been transshipping,” Robert Khachatryan, CEO of Freight Right Global Logistics, told The Epoch Times....
