If you put up a barrier, people will find a way around it. So its not shocking to read recent news stories about how some businesses are trying to skirt around tariffs – particularly from China. They’re shipping goods through third countries, rather than directly from China, using special “shoppers” to skirt minimum quantity amounts, colluding with suppliers to falsify country-of-origin labels, undervaluing goods, or “assembling” products out of China where tariffs are lower. They’re creating shell companies in more tariff-friendly countries and even going so far as forging certificates…
Tag: US small business
This pause in the trade war will be brief. Small businesses, plan accordingly
Donald Trump’s massive Chinese tariffs are on pause. The media debated. Wall Street rejoiced. Many of my clients breathed a sigh of relief. Big retailers jumped for joy. But for how long? For starters, the tariffs that weren’t paused – a 10% levy on all Chinese goods, plus a bonus 20% tax that somehow relates to fentanyl, are still in place. When you take into consideration existing tariffs on steel from previous Trump and Biden administrations, the effective tariff rate on Chinese goods is actually closer to 40%, according to…