Trump Aims to Shut Trade Loopholes China Uses to Evade Tariffs

President Donald Trump’s two-tiered trade deal with Vietnam aims squarely at practices China has long used to skirt US tariffs: The widespread legal shifting of production to Southeast Asian factories and the murkier and illegal “origin washing” of exports through their ports.

The agreement slaps a 20% tariff on Vietnamese exports to the US and a 40% levy on goods deemed to be transshipped through the country. With details still scarce, economists said much will hinge on the framework Washington establishes to determine what it sees as “Made in Vietnam” and what it sees as transshipments.

The Tan Vu Terminal at Haiphong Port in Vietnam.

Photographer: Linh Pham/Bloomberg

Complicating ...