The White House says China has been using a global network of trading partners to get around US tariffs, accusing more than 40 countries of helping goods reach American buyers through routes with lower import duties.
The accusation comes at a sensitive moment for Washington and Beijing, with Donald Trump expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington next month.
The White House dropped a heavy report on Thursday, claiming that more than 40 countries are actively helping China dodge American tariffs. This is not just a list of distant trade partners. It includes close allies like Canada, Japan, South Korea, India, and Mexico.
The trick is called transshipping. A product gets made in China, shipped to a country with lower US import duties, repackaged to hide its real origin, and then sent to America. The government estimates that anywhere from $30 billion to $300 billion in goods have been moved this way.
The White House did not use polite diplomatic language to describe it. They called the process “fraud cloaked in paperwork” and a “modern form of smuggling.”
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Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, said the shadow network has cost “American jobs and billions in revenue.” To track the cargo, the US is now deploying artificial intelligence to scan global shipping routes.
The Chinese embassy in Washington pushed back hard. A spokesperson said “trade wars have no winners” and warned that American pressure “must not target or harm the interests of third parties.”
The timing is not an accident. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in Washington this September. Chang Pao Li, an economics professor at Singapore Management University, said that the US is using this report to build leverage before the talks. But she warned that any country tied to Chinese factories now faces heavy new risks.
Trump’s original sweeping tariffs from 2025 were actually struck down by the Supreme Court, forcing his team to find new legal loopholes to keep the trade war alive. The courts might have locked the front door, but out on the docks, the back window is still wide open.
