On 13 August 2026, the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy released a 25-page report entitled ‘The Great Transhipment Scam.’ The report outlines how China has built a global network of about 40 countries to go around the high tariffs imposed by the US on goods made in China. Peter Navarro heads the OTMP and wrote an OpEd in the New York Times to explain the gist of the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main culprits are Mexico, Malaysia and Vietnam. But allied countries such as Singapore, South Korea, Japan and India are not spared. Actually, the report categorizes the suspicious countries into three tiers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By transshipment scam, the report means minimal assembly, repackaging or reinvoicing to change the certificate of origin to make the product to be made in a country with a lower tariff into the US compared to that imposed on China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n