China finds way around Trump's tariffs
Photo: China bypasses Trump's tariffs (Getty Images)
South Korea has faced attempts to pass off goods from China as Korean exports. This is being done to circumvent US President Donald Trump's massive tariffs, Reuters reports.
The Korean Customs Service said that in the first quarter, it detected country-of-origin violations worth 29.5 billion won ($21 million), with 97% of the total amount being shipments to the United States.
Trump, who took office in January, has imposed significant duties on various goods and countries, including tariffs on China, which began to rise in February.
"There was a rise in disguised export attempts during Trump's first presidency and we expect there to be a similar trend," said Lee Kwang-woo, director of investigation planning at the Investigation Service.
Investigating Pyongyang
Anticipating the growing risks, the authorities conducted the latest investigation proactively to prevent illegal exports. They have already detected signs of such attempts to bypass Trump's tariffs since the first quarter, Lee said during the press conference.
South Korean customs officials met with US officials to discuss joint investigation efforts.
South Korean officials have said that foreign companies, such as those from neighboring China, may be involved in attempts to use South Korea, which is a major US ally and has a free trade pact, as a workaround to avoid customs duties and regulations.
The inspection found 3.3 billion won worth of cathode materials used for batteries imported from China and shipped to the United States, with South Korea falsely labeled as the country of origin.
In March, 19.3 billion won worth of surveillance cameras were imported from China in parts and reassembled in South Korea to circumvent US restrictions on Chinese communication devices.
The Korean Customs Service has set up a special task force to prevent attempts to illegally export such goods and plans to develop more specific response measures to protect domestic companies. Meanwhile, the identified violations will be referred to prosecutors.
This month, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on South Korea, among other sweeping new duties that were later suspended for three months. Now, the US is imposing 145% tariffs on China following retaliatory measures that have severed trade between the world's two largest economies.
