Amidst the high U.S. tariffs on imported Chinese goods, Chinese export companies are increasingly turning to “origin laundering” to circumvent trade restrictions. On Chinese social media, a growing number of advertisements are openly promoting schemes to reroute goods through third countries – particularly Malaysia – where products are relabeled and issued new certificates of origin to appear as though they come from elsewhere before being exported to the U.S.
The Epoch Times reported several advertisements it found on China’s social media.
- A Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese version) account “Ruby-Third Country Transshipment” offered services to help exporters ship goods to countries like Malaysia and obtain fresh origin documents for onward shipment to the U.S.
- Another Douyin account, “Jingwei Consolidated Transshipment Trade Logistics,” posted a video on April 7 declaring: “Many foreign trade companies are now shifting toward transshipment trade – this is the industry trend.” The company claimed to possess extensive resources in major transshipment hubs and promised to issue “authentic, effective, and reliable” documentation to help clients overcome anti-dumping and trade barriers.
- An account named “Tuolong-U.S.-Canada Line Sam” shared a diagram outlining a competitive transshipment process on April 10, commenting, “There are always more solutions than problems.”
Malaysia has tightened its transshipment and origin certification policies in May.
Source: Epoch Times, May 6, 2025
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/25/5/6/n14500435.htm