The USA wants to take stronger action against falsely declared country of origin. The focus is primarily on Chinese goods that first pass through a third country and are subsequently imported into the USA with a different origin declared.
The problem is not the normal transshipment of a container. It becomes critical when goods are, for example, merely repackaged, relabeled, or minimally processed and then a new origin is declared. For an origin change, sufficient processing is fundamentally required – in US customs law, this is referred to as substantial transformation.
The report names more than 40 countries and economic zones with elevated risk. These include Mexico, Canada, Vietnam, India, the EU, and Switzerland. However, this is not a list of proven fraudsters. Even the report itself acknowledges that not every conspicuous trade shift constitutes illegal transshipment.
The US government speaks of potential customs losses in the billions. Reuters cites an estimate of approximately 19 to 26 billion US dollars per year. These figures are model calculations and not definitively established customs losses.
At the same time, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is expanding the use of AI and data analysis. Conspicuous routes, origin declarations, supply chains, and production capacities are to be compared automatically with one another.