The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has identified South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the European Union among dozens of economies facing transshipment risks tied to China-linked products, according to a White House report released Thursday, as part of a broader effort to counter schemes designed to circumvent U.S. tariffs and other trade remedies.

The White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy issued the report, titled "The Great Transshipment Scam," which names approximately 40 countries associated with "elevated" transshipment risks. The document states that Chinese exporters route goods through third countries using tactics such as relabeling, repackaging, and making false country-of-origin claims. Such practices have been a long-standing concern for U.S. trade enforcement, particularly as tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods under Section 301 authorities have created strong incentives for origin manipulation.

The report also details the administration's plan to develop a "detective border" powered by artificial intelligence (AI). This system would assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection by integrating shipment data, routing histories, and other information to identify high-risk shipments and facilitate duty collection. The proposal builds on existing CBP enforcement tools, including antidumping and countervailing duty orders and the Enforce and Protect Act, which allows the agency to investigate allegations of tariff evasion.

The report classifies the flagged economies into three categories. The first group — termed "diversified scale leaders" — includes South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the EU, India, Canada, Mexico, and Israel. These economies are characterized by diversified industrial bases and major U.S.-bound export platforms where "transshipment risk is embedded within broad legitimate trade flows."

The second category, described as "scale leaders with significant economic integration," comprises Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. The report notes that these countries combine illegal transshipment volumes with deeper integration into China-linked supply chains through input sourcing, manufacturing platforms, logistics systems, or regional rerouting channels. Several of these economies, particularly Vietnam, have faced increased U.S. scrutiny over origin verification in recent years as companies have shifted production and assembly operations away from China.

The third category, labeled "small, opportunistic Chinese targets," encompasses smaller economies with lower transshipment volumes but specific "weak-link advantages," including low-cost labor, port or border access, niche assembly capacity, and preferential U.S. trade access. This group includes Switzerland, Singapore, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Chile, and Colombia.

"By routing around the tariffs, China and its state-supported manufacturers and trading firms could push goods into jurisdictions with cheap labor, weak customs oversight, permissive free zones, or preferential U.S. trade access," the report stated.

"Over time, these lower-tariff countries, which number more than 40 today, became the launchpads and hubs of a new evasion architecture: products made largely in China, lightly touched abroad, and exported to America under new identities," the report added.