> Put simply, transshipping is when a country ships product through a third country so that the product will look like it’s coming from the third country, thereby avoiding duties or tariffs. For example, one supplier, Settle Logistics, goes through Malaysia: a 4600 miles diversion compared with sending a container from China straight to the US.
> This is much more expensive: shipping via Malaysia costs $3,000 to $4,000 more per shipping container, at least $2,000 more than shipping direct. Those costs are still worth it in order to avoid tariffs.
Simply making the goods pass through a third country does not change the origin of the goods, and it's the origin which determines the tariff.
So, as the article mentioned, the goods has to be significantly transformed in the third country in order for the goods to have its origin changed. Otherwise you're committing fraud and customs can punish you if they figure it out.
Thus doing this the legal way would indeed involve more than the ship making a simple detour.
