The U.S. tariffs on transshipment countries like Vietnam and Cambodia are so steep that they could force a major reassessment of global supply chains.
With the tariffs that President Trump unveiled on Wednesday, he is not just closing America’s front door to Chinese exports — he is slamming the back doors shut as well.
He has now piled tariffs totaling 54 percent on goods coming straight from China, on top of tariffs of up to 25 percent that he imposed on many imports from China during his first term. More significantly, his latest actions attempt to cut off a series of alternative routes for Chinese goods to reach American store shelves and households.
Since Mr. Trump began imposing tariffs on goods from China seven years ago, many Chinese companies have poured billions of dollars into building industrial parks in countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Mexico. In turn, these facilities have been importing components from China, assembling them into finished goods, and shipping them to the United States.
But Mr. Trump hit Mexico with extra tariffs earlier this year, and this week announced tariffs of as much as 49 percent on China’s partner countries in Southeast Asia as well.
“It’s a targeted effort to seal back doors for Chinese access to the U.S. market,” said Dan Wang, a China director in the Singapore office of the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm. “The result is permanently higher import costs from China, whether direct or through third countries.”
Mr. Trump also announced on Wednesday that starting on May 2, the United States would begin collecting tariffs on the more than $60 billion a year in so-called de minimis imports from China that are exempt from tariffs now because each shipment is worth less than $800. That move will add steep taxes to the cost of packages ordered through services like Shein and Temu.