The United States vowed to tap artificial intelligence to help detect and penalise such illegal practices.
The Donald Trump administration has flagged over 40 US trading partners, including India, Canada, and the European Union, for potential risks in aiding Chinese tariff evasion by operating a “shadow trans-shipment network”.
“For years, the great transshipment scam has let Communist China launder its exports through more than 40 countries,” Navarro told reporters.
The report pointed to “more than 40 countries associated with elevated illegal transshipment risk.
For some economies, transshipment risk is “embedded within broad legitimate trade flows,” it said. He said by routing around the tariffs, China and its state-supported manufacturers and trading firms could push goods into jurisdictions with cheap labour, weak customs oversight, permissive free zones, or preferential US trade access.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on US trading partners, adding to existing duties that Chinese imports face.
