The White House has released a new report examining the growing use of illegal transshipment to evade U.S. tariffs and trade-remedy orders. The report describes how goods originating in higher-tariff countries—particularly China—may be routed through third countries and subjected to minor processing, relabeling or documentation changes to conceal their true origin. This is particularly relevant to the aluminum extrusion industry, where strong country-of-origin verification and enforcement are essential to the effectiveness of Section 232 tariffs and antidumping and countervailing duty orders.
Key points for AEC members
- The report identifies more than 40 countries associated with elevated transshipment risk and estimates that potential illegal transshipment may total tens of billions of dollars annually.
- Aluminum products are specifically identified among the manufactured goods vulnerable to transshipment and origin shifting.
- Common evasion methods include minor assembly or finishing, relabeling, repackaging, re-invoicing and false country-of-origin claims.
- The report highlights the Enforce and Protect Act as an important tool for investigating the evasion of AD/CVD orders through third-country routing or misdeclared origin.
The Administration is strengthening importer accountability and developing AI-enabled tools to help CBP analyze shipping routes, ownership relationships, production capacity and other indicators of potential evasion.