There is alarm over apparent tariff fraud surging to record proportions.
Photographer: Nathan Howard/BloombergChina’s $112 Billion Cargo Gap Shows Record US Tariff Evasion
Phantom importers, sky high tariffs and suspiciously cheap shipping offers are fueling a surge in trade fraud, leaving law-abiding American businesses to foot the bill.
The messages arrive via WhatsApp and email, promising a deal that seems too good to be legal: a way to move goods from China to the US while avoiding President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
For Michael Kersey, president of the American Lawn Mower Company, these solicitations represent an existential threat. His century-old firm, famous for its push-reel mowers and gardening shovels, plays by the rules. His competitors, he suspects, are somehow bypassing steep trade barriers that Trump is seeking to maintain even after the Supreme Court ruled many of them were illegal.