White House Report Names Over 40 Countries as Facilitating Chinese Tariff Evasion Through Transshipment Networks Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit

A White House report published in the week of 14 August 2026 named more than 40 countries as having helped China evade US tariffs by routing exports through nations subject to lower American import duties, a practice known as transshipment. Countries named in the report include Canada, India, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the practice had cost American jobs and billions in revenue. The report described the arrangement as a coordinated network, characterising it as a scheme in which goods are transferred through third countries and sometimes repackaged to obscure their Chinese origin, a process the White House labelled the "Great Transshipment Scam". The report noted that the US has deployed artificial intelligence tools to detect transshipment attempts. Government and private sector estimates cited in the report put the value of goods moved through lower-tariff jurisdictions at between $40 billion and $303 billion. The range reflects significant uncertainty across different estimation methodologies. The report is published weeks before President Trump is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington in September 2026, adding to existing tensions between the two sides following a period of continued mutual sanctions exchanges after a partial tariff pause agreed in May 2025. Original sweeping tariffs introduced in April 2025 were subsequently struck down by the US Supreme Court, but further tariffs have since been introduced through alternative legal authority.