Labelling "Vietnamese Made" Fake Labels, Exporters Try To Bypass American Tariffs.

Some Chinese exporters are making every effort to avoid the impact of US President Donald Trumpga's tariffs.

Vietnam said on Sunday that dozens of forged certificates of origin had been found, and enterprises tried to avoid tariffs imposed by the United States on agricultural products, textiles and steel through illegal pshipment.

This is one of the first Asian governments to publicly denounce this kind of misconduct since the escalation of trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.

Vietnam has promised to increase penalties for trade related fraud in its statement, adding to concerns that some Chinese exporters are illegally changing the order path.

Trump imposed tariffs on 250 billion US dollars in goods exported to China and threatened to target another $300 billion.

Vietnam and other US trading partners are under greater pressure to prevent illegal exports from being hit by tariffs.

"It's a cat and mouse game," said FredBurke, managing partner of Baker&McKenzie (Vietnam) Ltd., a law firm.

"As long as people are willing to take risks, for example, 25% tariff arbitrage opportunities, it will be very difficult to carry out them."

DoVanSinh, a permanent member of the Vietnam Economic Commission, said in a statement that Vietnam is worried that allowing Chinese products with wrongly labelled labels to flow into the United States may be punished by the United States.

China's exports to the US have fallen sharply this year, while Vietnam's exports to the US have surged.

Although there is evidence that some of these increases are due to supply chain adjustment, analysts are questioning the legitimacy of recent growth.

The fraud found by the Vietnamese government includes replacing the packaging of Chinese goods with "made in Vietnam" and obtaining the certificate of origin.

The Vietnamese government gives an example: US customs officials found that China's plywood was shipped to the United States through a Vietnamese company.

"In view of the high tariff rate and huge potential profits, the workshop industry that bypasses US tariffs may thrive," said ChuaHakBin, a senior economist at MaybankKimEngResearchPte. in Singapore.

"ASEAN governments may be afraid of being seen as the backdoor to attack this bypass."

RahulKapoor, a senior analyst at Bloomberg industry research in Singapore, believes that doubtful shipments may only be "small" in China's total exports to the US.

"There will always be omissions and attempts to switch taxes, but we do not think this is a universal phenomenon," Kapoor said.

Vietnam has been scrutiny by the United States last month after the US Treasury put Vietnam on the watch list of currency manipulation.

Despite growing concerns that the US China conflict will damage Vietnam's economic growth, the Vietnamese authorities say the exchange rate will not be used to create unfair trade advantages.

Deputy Prime Minister Fan Pingming said in Congress last week that as a result of the trade war, Vietnam's GDP could be reduced by 6 trillion FMS (US $256 million) in the next 5 years.