Companies importing goods from China are increasingly using accounting maneuvers, middlemen, and in some cases apparent fraud to reduce the value of shipments entering the United States and cut the tariffs they owe, according to The New York Times. 

The average value of goods in a 20-foot container shipped from China to the United States fell by nearly 40 percent between January 2025 and February 2026, citing data compiled by ImportGenius, while the value of containers arriving from the rest of the world stayed relatively steady. Trade specialists and company executives told the Times that the drop strongly suggested many importers were finding ways to understate the value of Chinese goods to customs authorities. 

Because U.S. tariffs are assessed as a percentage of a shipment’s declared value, lowering that value can sharply reduce the duty bill. Some companies have shifted production to countries such as Vietnam and Mexico, while others have kept sourcing from China but adopted valuation tactics ranging from lawful customs planning to outright false declarations, the newspaper said. 

Some are using “delivered duty paid” arrangements in which Chinese factories or logistics providers take over shipping and customs clearance for a flat fee, obscuring how much tariff is actually paid. Small-business owners told the newspaper such offers had become common as they tried to absorb tariff costs that might otherwise threaten their survival. 

Executives interviewed by the Times said they had seen competitors declaring implausibly low values for imported goods, allowing them to undercut rivals on price. One industry executive cited by the paper said some companies appeared to be reporting import prices that were a fraction of normal market levels. 

Not all tariff-reduction strategies are illegal, however. Multinationals have at times used customs rules to exclude certain intangible costs, such as brand value, software, or design. Others have relied on a “first sale” rule that allows duties to be calculated on an earlier, lower-priced transaction between a manufacturer and a foreign intermediary rather than the higher final sale price in the United States, the Times said. 

Still, China said it exported nearly $112 billion more to the United States last year than U.S. data showed as imports received, widening a gap that economists have linked in part to tariff evasion. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told the Times it was aggressively combating trade fraud and encouraged reporting of violations. The Trump administration has created a task force to address tariff evasion, though lawyers, customs brokers, and executives told the paper the government remained outmatched by the scale and ease of the schemes. 

Read more at The New York Times