Reuters, HANOIVietnam has said it would crackdown on goods of Chinese origin illegally relabeled “Made in Vietnam” by exporters seeking to avoid US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. The General Department of Vietnam Customs has found scores of such cases amid ongoing US-China trade tensions, it said in a statement posted to a government Web site on Sunday. “The faking of origin and the illegal transhipment of goods happens most often in the sectors of textiles, seafood, agricultural products, tiles, honey, steel and iron, aluminium and timber products,” the department said. In one such example, which was uncovered by US Customs and Border Protection, a Vietnam-based manufacturer of timber products was found to have been importing Chinese timber which it had relabeled and exported to the US. Vietnam’s customs department is developing a process to better identify and impose penalties on businesses that carry out such contraventions, the statement said.

Source: Taipei Times June 10, 2019 15:56 UTC