Inside Story of the Huge Profits in Entrepot Trade: How They Bypass Tariff Barriers

When Mr. Zhang first heard of "third - country entrepot trade", he thought it was just an obscure term in international trade. It was not until his foreign - trade company was on the verge of losses due to tariff issues that a trading company from Dalian used this special operation to help him save 37% of the costs - behind this lies a little - known global trade survival rule.

Simply put, it is to transit goods through a third country to evade high tariffs or trade barriers in the target market. The case of Zhongshitong shows that a Southeast Asian customer transited Chinese goods to the United States through Dalian, enjoying zero tariffs by using the ASEAN Certificate of Origin, while a 25% tariff would be levied for direct exports.

• Tariff Optimization: Utilize free - trade agreements between different countries
• Evade Restrictions: Break through the import control of specific countries
• Logistics Reorganization: Reconstruct the global supply - chain route

As a shipping center in Northeast Asia, Dalian has 7 international liner routes and the policy of the Pilot Area of the China - Japan - ROK Free Trade Area. Ms. Li's daily - necessities company adopted the route of Dalian - Vietnam - the United States, not only evading the 301 tariffs but also only increasing the transportation time by 5 days.

Key Operational Process:

• Export from China to the transit country (such as Malaysia)
• Complete container - changing and document processing in the transit country
• Export to the final destination in the name of the transit country

In 2023, a European customer was found to be "washing the place of origin" due to document flaws and faced heavy fines. Professional companies will strictly control:

• The transit country needs to complete more than 30% value - added processing
• The Certificate of Origin must be genuine and compliant
• The entire - process logistics documents must be complete and traceable

Blockchain technology is changing this industry. The traceability system developed by Zhongshitong can track the processing of goods in the transit country in real - time, increasing the transparency of the entire process by 60%. Recently, Mr. Zhang completed the compliance verification that used to take two weeks in just 48 hours through this system.

When global trade barriers are increasingly high, third - country transshipment may not be the optimal solution, but it is indeed a way for many enterprises to survive. Does your industry also have such "roundabout rescue" opportunities? Welcome to share the cases of breaking through trade barriers you have encountered.