A wave of so -called “original washing” advertisements flooded Chinese social media platforms, offering exporters to avoid steep American prices by re -explicating and transmitting goods or falsely labeling their place of manufacture.
Video advertisements published on Xiaohongshu, or Rednote, and Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok, show companies promoting “re-export transfer services and one-shop freight” via southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand to bypass the growing restrictions on export warming via these markets.
“Chinese manufacturers who have the United States as a main market must find a way to survive,” the Taiwanese businessman, Lee Meng-Chu, said, noting the “huge demand” of transit solutions that allow exporters to sell in the United States but escape 145% of American prices imposed on Chinese imports.
The freight forwarders, or customs brokers, have become key facilitators, managing customs declaration documents, authorization and original certificates, their service costs which were to increase with the peak application, said Lee. Some forwarders even help exporters to change or recharge containers to disguise origins, he said.
A user of Douyin, “Freight Forward, Lao Wang”, says he has established a new transhipment channel recognized by the United States where “80% of the products are fully compliant thanks to the original traceability”, showed a video published on the platform.
Its “one -shop solution” covers all the services of the supply chain and includes “the declaration of national customs, the booking of ships, the operation of the transit port, the reservation of second -level ships and the release and delivery of American customs”.
Many Douyin users warn that trade re -exports – the process of exporting goods previously imported without use or modification – have been the most difficult due to the increase in failure, because countries deploy artificial intelligence technology to monitor global shipping routes in real time and investigate tax evasion by South -East Asia.
Vietnam has intensified inspections of the origins of raw materials to prevent certificates of fraudulent origin, while Thailand has reinforced the verification of the origins of the product for exports linked to the United States to combat tariff escape.
“The entire supply chain must be clearly declared, up to the source of the buttons,” warns a user of Douyin. “Pricing fraud leads to penalties up to 20 years’ imprisonment, 300% of fines on the amount of taxes escaped and tracing profits over 10 years.”
US law requires imported goods to undergo a “substantial transformation” before being able to legally claim a new country of origin.
Many Chinese manufacturers had initially planned to completely move their production bases in Southeast Asia or other low-cost regions, noted that Sun Kuo-Hsiang, professor of the Department of International Affairs and Affairs at the University of Southern China.
However, they were forced to resort to “original washing” because the construction of factories was not finished or due to the lack of production capacity, Sun told RFA.
The European and American authorities have also made a meticulous examination on the certificate of origin, but the inspection capacities cannot keep the pace of the number of companies openly promoting the “origin washing” services through announcements on social networks, said Sun.
Published by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington.