The Trump administration is developing an AI-powered “detective border” to crack down on trading partners suspected of enabling China to skirt tariffs on US imports.
In a report released Thursday, the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy accused dozens of countries of being part of China’s “shadow transshipment network,” sorting them “according to the scale of China-linked trade, the depth of their economic integration with China, and the weak-link advantages that make them susceptible to rerouting activity.”
The values of these goods, described as flowing through third countries to evade levies on imports and other trade remedies, are based on analysis from two government and three private-sector sources.
AI supply chain firm Exiger provided a mid-range estimate of $75 billion in illegally transshipped goods between February 2025 and February 2026, which corresponds a loss of tariff revenue between $19 billion and $34 billion.
More than 40 countries are associated with elevated illegal transshipment risk, the report from White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s office said, and “China’s biggest enablers range from Mexico and Canada on US land borders to the European Union, India, Japan, and South Korea.”
