White House attacks 40-plus countries over tariffs

The Trump administration issued a policy study on Thursday accusing more than 40 countries of being involved in "illegal transshipment" — routing China-origin goods through third countries to the US, and said such a practice is a major, ongoing drain on the US economy.

Data provided 

by the report displayed a wide range that could mean almost a 10-fold gap between estimated low and high values.

"This report reviews five government and private-sector estimates of potential transshipment or related trade-transfer exposure. The estimates range from approximately $40 billion to $303 billion annually, depending on the methodology and definition used," the report said.

The report went on to say that this resulted in "annual tariff-revenue loss estimates" ranging from $10 billion to more than $100 billion, job losses between 240,000 and 1.82 million, and US GDP loss from $6 billion to 606 billion.

In response, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Washington said that "China holds that any unilateral actions or agreements concerning transshipped goods must not target or harm the interests of third parties".

The spokesperson stressed that "China remains of the view that tariff and trade wars have no winners. Protectionism harms the common interests of all countries, and fails to enhance the competitiveness of the countries practicing it".

"The White House report blames others for a problem it created with tariffs the Supreme Court later ruled illegal. Its $75 billion centerpiece is a model-derived estimate, not a verified loss — and the White House admits its five estimates are not comparable," Jiang Wenran, founding director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta in Canada, told China Daily.

The document listed roughly 40 countries "as participants in the Great Transshipment Scam" and grouped them loosely into three tiers.

Tier 1, called "diversified scale leaders", included Canada, the European Union, India, Israel, Japan and Mexico — most of them viewed as close allies of the US.

It listed Brazil, Turkey and a few Southeast Asia countries as Tier 2 "scale leaders with significant economic integration with China". Many other countries were classified as Tier 3 "small opportunistic Chinese targets".

The report went on to call the trade relations between US cities and cities in other countries "ugly sister city" pairs.

"Naming Canada as a 'Tier 1' risk is unfair and diplomatically reckless. Instead of fixing US manufacturing competitiveness, Washington again looks for scapegoats. That will not make America great again," Jiang said.

The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy said that China firmly opposes unilateral tariff measures, as well as the overstretching of the concept of national security and the use of state power to suppress Chinese enterprises.

"We firmly oppose any party seeking to strike a deal at China's expense or engaging in baseless economic coercion that severely infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of relevant enterprises and gravely disrupts the stability of global industrial and supply chains," he said.

The spokesperson said that "should such situations arise, China will resolutely take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests".

Yang Gao in Canada contributed to the story.

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com