White House Counts Evaded Tariffs as Record Revenue

The White House announced Friday that tariff evasion costing the government an estimated $19 billion to $26 billion annually proves President Donald Trump’s trade policy is generating record quantities of revenue that cannot be collected, located or distinguished from zero. An Aug. 13 administration report found exporters routing goods through third countries to avoid American duties, a practice officials described as compelling evidence that the tariffs work so well nobody wishes to pay them.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro accused China of “laundering” exports through more than 40 countries, allowing Chinese goods to acquire new nationalities through shipping records and customs paperwork. Customs and Border Protection is testing artificial intelligence to identify suspicious transshipments after ordinary intelligence was classified as an unfair barrier to administration policy. Officials said the technology will determine whether products labeled as Malaysian, Vietnamese or Mexican had recently spent meaningful time in China, or merely changed vessels long enough to qualify for a fresh passport.

“We are losing more tariff money than any administration has ever lost, which proves we created more tariff money than anybody thought possible,” Trump said. “Nobody loses revenue like us, and China is paying every dollar that American companies send to the Treasury.” Administration officials emphasized that the missing billions confirm tariffs are paid by foreigners, especially the foreigners who evade them, while American importers merely provide the actual money. The arrangement preserves the president’s economic doctrine that a tax is foreign whenever an American writes the check but the White House points overseas.

Navarro praised the evasion network for producing a worldwide boom in creative geography, as factories remain in place while their exports travel enough miles to become somebody else’s responsibility. The administration is considering additional tariffs to recover revenue lost to existing tariffs, creating a larger pool of theoretical money for exporters to avoid and American businesses to replace. Officials described the plan as self-financing because the public will finance the original tariffs, the replacement tariffs and the enforcement needed to prove foreigners paid both. The White House has therefore established that uncollected tariff revenue is the most profitable kind.

* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.