Masking to avoid Trump's tariffs: China is trying to pass off its exports as Korean, Seoul believes
Kyiv • UNN
South Korea's customs service has detected a significant increase in attempts to disguise foreign goods, primarily from China, as Korean exports to the United States. This is being done to circumvent President Trump's tariffs; in the first quarter alone, violations worth $20.81 million were detected.
South Korea has detected an increase in attempts to disguise foreign products as Korean exports, primarily from China. This is being done to avoid the sweeping tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
Details
Korea Customs Service (KCS) stated that following a special inspection conducted last month, it detected country-of-origin violations amounting to 29.5 billion won ($20.81 million) from the first quarter, with 97% of the total attributed to shipments to the United States. This compares to a total of 34.8 billion won in violations for all of 2024, with 62% attributed to US-bound shipments.
Trump, who took office in January, imposed significant tariffs on various goods and countries, including China, which began to rise from February.
During Trump's first presidency, there was a rise in disguised export attempts, and we expect a similar trend to be observed now
Anticipating increasing risks, the authorities conducted the latest investigation proactively to prevent illegal exports. They had already detected signs of such attempts to avoid Trump's tariffs since the first quarter, Lee said during a media briefing.
On Monday, South Korean customs officials held a meeting with US officials to discuss joint investigation efforts.
South Korean officials said there could be a rise in attempts by foreign companies, particularly from neighboring China, to use South Korea, a major US ally with a free trade pact, as a bypass route to avoid tariffs and regulations.
This month, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on South Korea as part of a new set of sweeping levies, which were later suspended for three months. The US is now imposing 145% tariffs on China following retaliatory actions that economists say have led to a decoupling of trade between the world's two largest economies.
Data released Monday included 3.3 billion won worth of battery cathode materials imported from China and shipped to the United States with South Korea falsely listed as the country of origin, to avoid already high tariffs in January, even before Trump's tariffs took effect.
In March, 19.3 billion won worth of surveillance cameras were imported from China in parts and assembled in South Korea to circumvent US restrictions on Chinese communication devices. Some of the goods have already been shipped abroad, while some are still at the port.
Korea Customs Service has established a special task force to prevent illegal export attempts of such goods and plans to develop more concrete response measures to protect domestic companies. Meanwhile, detected violations will be handed over to the prosecution.
Addition
South Korea does not plan to "resist" US tariff policy due to a "historical sense of obligation" to America. US President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on South Korea. Acting President Han Duck-soo said this in an interview with the Financial Times.