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Authors:

  • Jaya Wen
When tariffs are levied against a specific country, that country might attempt to circumvent the tariff by rerouting products through a third country to avoid the higher taxes. Research in the aftermath of the 2018 U.S.-China trade war examined this phenomenon, finding that, while tariff circumvention through Vietnam did happen, it wasn’t as widespread as many had initially thought. That said, there still was an increase in tariff circumvention more broadly, and specifically via Chinese-owned firms in Vietnam. The findings suggest that if a country is considering implementing tariffs, a better approach might involve ownership-based duties or firm-specific sanctions instead of blanket tariffs.

Citations

Wen, Jaya, Ebehi Iyoha, Edmund Malesky and Sung-Ju Wu. 2025. Research: The Costs of Circumventing Tariffs. Harvard Business Review.