White House Targets Tariff Transshipping by China, India, and Mexico

The administration's use of a Goldman Sachs partnership to identify evasion routes signals an enforcement approach that extends trade policy implementation beyond traditional federal agency channels.

The White House on Thursday identified China, India, and Mexico as among the countries using transshipping to evade President Donald Trump's tariffs, according to a briefing by Peter Navarro, the senior White House counselor for trade and manufacturing, as reported by the Washington Examiner on August 13, 2026. Transshipping is a practice in which goods are routed through a third country to obscure their origin and avoid applicable tariff rates.

The Council of Economic Advisers, working alongside the Commerce Department and Goldman Sachs, produced a report identifying which trading partners are engaging in this practice, according to the same Washington Examiner report. The specific tariff rates at issue, the dollar value of estimated evasion, and the full list of named countries were not detailed in the available source material. The complete report, if released publicly, would contain those figures.

Navarro briefed reporters on the initiative Thursday morning, according to the Washington Examiner. The White House has not, as of this publication, released the full text of the Council of Economic Advisers report identifying the transshipping partners. A public release through the Council of Economic Advisers website or the Federal Register would be the document that quantifies the scope of the alleged evasion.

The involvement of Goldman Sachs in a federal policy analysis effort raises questions about the terms of that partnership, including whether it constitutes a paid contract or a voluntary advisory role. A search of USASpending.gov for any contract award between the Council of Economic Advisers or the Commerce Department and Goldman Sachs would reveal whether public funds were involved. As of publication, the nature of that arrangement is unknown.

What remains publicly unconfirmed includes the full methodology used to calculate transshipping volumes, the specific tariff schedules implicated, and what enforcement actions, if any, the administration plans to take against the named countries. The Office of the United States Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce both maintain public dockets that would reflect any formal proceedings initiated as a result of this review.