Tuesday, April 21, 2020

A Clever Tariff Loophole



Brad Aefsky emails:
You may appreciate this.  What are your thoughts here... 
Is this a capitalism breathes through loopholes moment?  Or would this be fraudulent due to IP or similar violations?
I'm thinking it's capitalism breathing through loopholes because they are labeling it with a country name...   but if it were a product (e.g., Motorola labeling a product as Apple) then it'd be fraudulent. 
From USA Today
Vietnamese officials say China is intentionally mislabeling its products as "made in Vietnam" to avoid American tariffs, and have ordered offices to more aggressively examine products' certificates of origin. 
Chinese firms first export products to Vietnam, then change the labeling on packages before exporting the goods to the United States, Japan or Europe, they said.

RW response:

You have this one correct. This in no way harms consumers or, for all practical purposes, misleads consumers. It is a method by which firms are attempting to get around onerous US government regulations. Heroic!




1 comment: