Aurelia Butler

This article is an on-site version of our Europe Express newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday and fortnightly on Saturday morning. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. News to start: Brussels plans to make it easier for UK professionals to work in the EU, a key British post-Brexit request, in a proposal seen by the Financial Times. Today, our energy correspondent profiles Dan Jørgensen, the Danish commissioner whose plan to end EU imports of Russian energy will be released this afternoon. And parliament’s top border control lawmaker tells Laura what’s still hindering the EU’s new border system.Join Chris Giles and Monetary Policy Radar colleagues tomorrow for a Q&A on how central banks should navigate the new world order.Phasing outDan Jørgensen, the EU’s energy commissioner, admits that working out how the EU will wean itself off Russian fossil fuels “is by far the most important and difficult thing I’ve been involved with”. Its success or failure will probably define his tenure, writes Alice Hancock.Context: The European Commission will today present a plan setting out how the bloc will rid itself of its remaining imports of Russian fossil fuels by 2027. The document marks the beginning of the end of the EU’s dependence on Russian energy, which previously accounted for two-fifths of the bloc’s gas imports and around a third of its oil.It’s proven a tricky political balancing act for Jørgensen, who has had to account for the varying interests of different member states, but also US preferences, as American gas is expected to help replace the Russian fuel.Jørgensen is not new to tough negotiations. He has repeatedly led discussions on contentious climate issues decided at the UN COP climate conference. As Denmark’s climate and energy minister, he was among those sat around the EU negotiating table during the 2022 gas price crisis.But this plan, he told the FT, goes beyond even those “days and nights . . . making emergency plans for what to do if [Vladimir] Putin closed off the gas”.“We moved from being afraid that [Putin] would stop the gas to working on stopping it ourselves. And to some extent, you can say that we’ve been extremely successful,” Jørgensen said. “I don’t honestly think there . . . are many parts of the world where countries would be able to fundamentally shift from one supplier as much as we have [and] as fast as we have.” “It’s the first time that the EU takes a step that is this significant towards another country,” he added.Despite countries hassling Jørgensen to present the plan from “day one on this job”, it was nonetheless delayed from its original March publication date owing to the complexity of the options the commission is presenting.Jørgensen said it was “a very complicated matter” but that Brussels had found “new solutions that will make it possible for us to finally say that this will now happen”.Many EU officials now see turning off Russian gas — and turning up US LNG imports — as a win-win situation that could also avoid a trade war with Washington.Jørgensen said he had spoken to his US counterparts to let them know the plan was coming but, because of the market implications, specific details of the plan have been “kept very tight”.Chart du jour: FrenemySome content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.China is on a charm offensive with Europe and other global powers, to push back against US influence and shore up its export markets.Phasing inGermany, France and the Netherlands must remove the last hurdles for the EU’s new electronic border to come into force this autumn, the lawmaker leading European parliament negotiations on the issue tells Laura Dubois.Context: The so-called Entry/Exit System has been bogged down for eight years amid technical delays and security concerns. The system will record personal details of all foreign travellers entering or exiting the bloc.“The only thing that is standing in the way of getting ahead with this legislation is the readiness of France, Germany and the Netherlands,” Assita Kanko of the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists told the FT.The three countries had raised concerns about the central system, prompting the European Commission to propose a phased rollout to ensure a smooth transition.Kanko said that “any risk of a total failure of the system has been removed”.Both the council of EU member states and the European parliament have approved the gradual phase-in, meaning that negotiations between parliamentarians and the council can now start. Kanko said that a first round of talks had been scheduled for Friday.If the institutions agree — and all countries declare they are ready — the system can be phased in from late October or early November over six months, Kanko said.A spokesperson for Germany’s interior ministry said it “will adopt the declaration of operational readiness within the required timeframe to avoid further delays”. The responsible Dutch and French ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but officials have signalled they would stick to the planned timetable.What to watch today Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Council president António Costa address the European parliament in Strasbourg.Friedrich Merz to be elected German chancellorNow read theseRecommended newsletters for you Free Lunch — Your guide to the global economic policy debate. Sign up hereThe State of Britain — Peter Foster’s guide to the UK’s economy, trade and investment in a changing world. Sign up hereAre you enjoying Europe Express? Sign up here to have it delivered straight to your inbox every workday at 7am CET and on Saturdays at noon CET. Do tell us what you think, we love to hear from you: [email protected]. Keep up with the latest European stories @FT Europe More

After China unilaterally dropped sanctions on several members of the European parliament last week, the government was very clear that it has not merely decided to play nice. Beijing insisted that the expected price for removing the sanctions, originally imposed four years ago during a dispute over alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, was co-operation with China on trade.“Our joint effort . . . to uphold the multilateral trading system and promote trade liberalisation . . . will bring much-needed stability and certainty to the world economy,” said Guo Jiakun, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson.Beijing’s attempt at rapprochement with the EU is just one part of a frenzied global charm offensive that China has embarked on since US President Donald Trump unveiled his “liberation day” tariffs on April 2. In the past month, President Xi Jinping has visited important regional trading partners Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia. He is due to meet several more heads of state this week in Moscow for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day celebrations. A few days later, Xi is expected to receive Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other regional leaders in Beijing during a ministerial meeting of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.The diplomatic campaign underlines how for China, Trump’s latest trade war is a critical moment — both as a chance to push back against US influence around the world, but also for heading off any threat to its other export markets.Weak domestic demand has left China dependent on external markets to absorb products from its vast factories, which account for about a third of the world’s total manufacturing capacity. Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.Keeping global markets open to its goods is consequently of vital economic importance — if not in the US, then at least in other countries.  For many countries, it is a message they cannot afford to ignore. With the US threatening to levy punitive “reciprocal” tariffs even on poor economies, many world leaders are desperate to keep the multilateral trading system alive. “China sees the current moment in US foreign policy as a golden opportunity to win friends and influence people around the world,” says Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. “Beijing is positioning itself as the new champion of economic globalisation now that Washington has disavowed that agenda.”But the central challenge for Beijing as it rallies global support is that it has fraught trading relationships with countries beyond the US. China, which had a record trade surplus last year of nearly $1tn, has built such an overwhelming dominance in a range of industries that many of its trading partners were concerned about being swamped by Chinese goods, even before the current trade hostilities.“China has surpluses, not just with the US, not just with Europe, but with 172 economies in the world,” Bert Hofman, a former Beijing-based country director for China at the World Bank, told a meeting of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China. “And if you have surpluses with 172 economies in the world, that’s not a great soft power position.”For a 71-year-old, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi maintains a travel schedule and hectic meeting agenda that would put many younger people to shame.Since Trump launched the latest phase of his trade war, Wang has met scores of foreign ministers and heads of state from almost every corner of the world, ranging from Nigeria and Switzerland to Japan and Uzbekistan. He has wasted little opportunity to canvass support against Washington’s efforts to isolate China on global markets. China’s Wang Yi positions Russia’s Sergei Lavrov ahead of a photo session at the Brics meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Since Trump launched the latest phase of his trade war, Wang has met scores of foreign ministers across the world More

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.European and Asian carmakers, already reeling from Donald Trump’s tariffs, face being saddled with steeper costs when shipping vehicles to the US, as Washington’s new port fee policy threatens to wreak havoc on the $150bn American seaborne car import market.Having been ensnared in the shipping war between Washington and Beijing, car carrier operators will have to pay $150 for every vehicle they have capacity to carry into the US from October. That could equate to additional fees of about $1.8bn a year for the car carrier sector, according to Clarksons Research. This comes after the US trade representative (USTR) in mid-April imposed a blanket fee on all non-US built vessels entering American ports, causing panic in the European, Japanese and South Korean shipping industries.Lasse Kristoffersen, chief executive of the leading vehicle shipping line Wallenius Wilhelmsen, told the Financial Times the extra costs would end up with carmakers and other customers, and ultimately “the consumer will pay”.“The uncertainty is so big that you stop making cars, you’re pausing decisions, you’re delaying exports and sourcing of parts,” Kristoffersen said. Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.The global seaborne car trade, which totalled roughly $600bn last year, involves a fleet of 836 specialised vessels. The new fee regime will cost as much as $1.2mn per US voyage for a large vessel, which the World Shipping Council says can transport 8,000 cars.Many carmakers face 25 per cent tariffs on foreign-made vehicles imported into the US, and groups from Audi and Jaguar Land Rover to Aston Martin have halted vehicle shipments to the US because of the levies. Mitsui OSK Lines, which has the world’s second-largest fleet, said it was worried the new port policy in the US “might impact significantly on the global supply chain of the car industry”. Andreas Enger, chief executive of Scandinavian car carrier operator Höegh Autoliners, in late April said the new costs would need to be shared by its customers. “It is an uncertainty both on the effect of the tariffs on our customers and the trade flows,” he said at the company’s latest earnings briefing. Clarksons’ data for 2024 showed the car carrier industry moved a record 29mn vehicles, of which 4.6mn headed to the US. US efforts to challenge Chinese supremacy in commercial shipbuilding began under Joe Biden’s administration, which opened an investigation in April last year into alleged unfair Chinese economic practices in shipbuilding and maritime logistics.Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.A bipartisan group of US lawmakers on Wednesday reintroduced the “Ships for America Act” to reboot the US shipbuilding industry.According to the USTR, China’s shipbuilding market share has soared from virtually nothing in the 1990s to more than 50 per cent in 2023, while Chinese ownership of the global commercial fleet has risen to more than 19 per cent as of early 2025.The new measures are aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing of ships but they were significantly watered down from an earlier proposal to impose fees of up to $1.5mn on ships built in China following warnings from US exporters of higher freight rates and ultimately higher prices for American consumers.Car carrier operators were caught off-guard with new fees that target not just Chinese but all foreign-built vessels, with no exemptions for frequency of calls that were offered to other segments. The new fees can be delayed for three years if operators order and take delivery of a car carrier built at a US yard during that period. World Shipping Council CEO Joe Kramek said: “It’s not realistic. There are no yards in the US that can do it, and the shipbuilding capacity that is in the US is going to hold out for naval contracts because ultimately they’re more profitable.”Only one vessel in the current global fleet of deep-sea car carriers was built in the US. About a fifth of the current car carrier capacity was built in China, while Japan accounted for 47 per cent. The US only accounted for 0.1 per cent. Carmakers face a further problem as China accounts for 86 per cent of the new vessels that have been ordered and are being built, according to Clarksons.Kramek said the USTR had decided to impose uncapped fees on all car carriers — not just Chinese-owned or operated vessels — without prior notice to the industry. Vehicle shipping groups are contesting the legal basis for regulating car carriers made by countries other than the US with some shipping executives hopeful that the fees will be adjusted before their implementation this year.Kramek said: “These measures apply to all foreign-build vessels, even though USTR’s stated aim is to curb Chinese behaviours in the commercial shipping market. It does raise questions over whether the USTR has overstepped its authority.”Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West in New York More

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldMark Carney has had a short honeymoon since his victory in Canada’s election.A little over a week after spearheading his Liberal party’s comeback, the prime minister will meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday for crucial talks overshadowed by a looming trade war and rumblings of Brexit-style rebellion at home.  The US president’s hostility to his northern neighbour — with repeated threats to annex Canada and the imposition of tariffs in violation of a free trade agreement — dominated the Canadian election campaign and helped propel Carney’s Liberal party to victory. The former central bank governor pledged that Trump would “never break” Canada, and said Ottawa would look to forge new trading alliances.Now he must find a way to repair relations with his country’s biggest trading partner.“Carney’s certainly going into the lion’s den,” said Dimitry Anastakis, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “It is a delicate operation. During the campaign he said some very strident things about Trump and the US.”But for all Carney’s fighting talk, the C$1.3tn (US$940bn) annual trading relationship is crucial to his country’s economy. Canada sells most of its products and services to the US. Despite hopes for a reset in bilateral relations under Carney, Trump said in an interview with NBC on Sunday that he would “always” be talking about making Canada the 51st US state and repeated a list of grievances over the country’s timber, energy and automotive industries. “We do very little business with Canada. They do all of their business practically with us. They need us. We don’t need them,” he said. Meanwhile, the prime minister is also facing a challenge from Trump-friendly Alberta premier Danielle Smith, who visited the US president at his Mar-a-Lago residence in January. In the wake of Carney’s win, she has resurrected the spectre of separation by oil-rich Alberta, tabling electoral reforms to “strengthen democracy” that made it easier for a referendum on independence by halving the required number of signatures for a petition requesting a poll to just 10 per cent of eligible voters. “The vast majority of these individuals are not fringe voices to be marginalised or vilified . . . They are, quite literally, our friends and neighbours who’ve just had enough of having their livelihoods and prosperity attacked by a hostile federal government,” she said in an online address on Monday evening.In April, ahead of the election, Angus Reid polling found three out of 10 voters in Alberta and Saskatchewan said they would like to leave Canada if the Liberals formed the next government. While there has long been dissatisfaction in Canada’s western provinces over governance from Ottawa, which lies thousands of miles to the east, Alberta was an especially vocal critic of the Liberal party and its environmental policies under former prime minister Justin Trudeau. Although Carney has pivoted away from his predecessor’s approach and has pledged to make Canada an energy “superpower” — with Alberta’s oil and gas sector eyeing huge potential in finding new markets for their fossil fuel reserves — resentment over federal energy policy remains a rich seam for the province’s politicians. After meeting Carney last week, Smith posted on X: “Repairing the damage to Alberta’s economy caused by Ottawa’s last 10 years of anti-resource legislation and policies will take tremendous effort and co-operation.” Carlo Dade, a senior fellow at the Canada West Foundation think-tank, said while there was a lot of anger and frustration in Alberta, the latest outbreak was not unprecedented. “Alberta has to work this out with the new government, but am I particularly alarmed looking at the broader swath of Canadian history? I’m thinking this is well within what we’ve dealt with,” he said.Carney’s task in Washington is a more immediate challenge. As one of the few foreign leaders to stand up to Trump, all eyes will be on his reception at the White House on Tuesday. “Trump has repeated exaggerated claims about trade deficits, calling them a form of subsidy, so Carney faces a difficult conversation,” said Semra Sevi, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto. “The last thing [he] wants is a repeat of [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s tense visit to the White House.” More

European and UK companies are laying bare the cost of the US trade war, with executives outlining the hit to consumer confidence, the threats to supply chains and the destabilising effect of prolonged uncertainty over the level of tariffs.Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, Mercedes-Benz and UK consumer goods group Unilever are among a wave of companies to have put investors on notice of how business conditions have shifted since Donald Trump announced a blitz of tariffs against America’s trading partners last month.In the first set of quarterly results since the US president’s “liberation day” event, companies spelt out the multipronged challenges, including a slowdown in the US, a major market, and fading hopes for a robust economic rebound in the euro area.Jesper Brodin, head of Ingka, which operates the majority of Ikea stores, said that one of the biggest dilemmas was how to respond to the speed at which the White House was announcing policies with potentially far-reaching implications for supply chains and pricing strategies.“I remember the days when politicians were slow and the companies were fast, and there’s no way Ikea can adapt its footprint, strategy on this type of time horizon,” Brodin told the Financial Times, adding that the group typically takes at least a 10-year view when deciding a plant’s location. The administration’s trade policy, which Trump has said will bring investment, plants and jobs to America, has dominated quarterly earnings calls from European and UK companies.In April, tariffs were mentioned 223 times on calls by companies on the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index, which includes many listed in London, according to FactSet data, compared with 115 in March.The sharp rise reflects the impact of the April 2 “liberation day” event when Trump imposed a baseline tariff of 10 per cent on trading partners and steeper so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries. The White House subsequently delayed the imposition of the higher duties for 90 days to allow for talks on trade deals.         With the baseline tariffs only coming into force on April 5, the number of companies quantifying the cost of the duties has been limited. But many executives argued that the protracted uncertainty over the final rate of so-called reciprocal tariffs and the ultimate shape of trade deals was itself damaging, hobbling their ability to plan and make financial forecasts. “I think uncertainties created by economic policies, trade wars and evolution also of the financial markets have increased the concerns and created more uncertainty,” said Nestlé chief executive Laurent Freixe.Talks between the EU and the US have made little progress, with Brussels set to impose retaliatory tariffs on July 8 in the absence of a trade deal. The UK and the US remain in talks over a deal.Faced with the lack of clarity, Stellantis, owner of the Fiat and Chrysler brands, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo Cars are among the companies to have scrapped their forecasts.“You are starting to see companies making statements about low visibility and unwillingness to make long-term plans,” said Fabiana Fedeli, head of equities and multi-asset at M&G Investments.Investors have yet to hear from many of the 517 companies on the Stoxx 600 that report quarterly results, but have already been told of the chilling effect that tariffs have had on consumer confidence and dealmaking.Reckitt, the UK maker of Strepsils and Dettol, said that the market volatility that followed the launch of the tariffs could affect the multibillion-dollar sale of its cleaning products business. Nestlé’s Freixe told analysts that the year began with consumers who were “not optimistic, to say the least”, and that tariffs had made the picture worse. Unilever, one of the biggest companies on the FTSE 100, highlighted the potential impact of significant swings in currencies since the tariffs, with acting chief financial officer Srinivas Phatak describing the dollar’s steep fall against the euro in a matter of weeks as “unprecedented”. Global stocks have rallied over the past week on signs that the US and China may begin to seek an end to their stand-off over trade, which has led to Washington and Beijing imposing punitive tariffs. Executives used earnings calls to warn that real clarity over trade policy was needed for companies to resume making significant decisions.UK clothing retailer Primark, which is planning to double its number of US stores to 60 by next year, could potentially move some manufacturing from China, according to George Weston, chief executive of Associated British Foods, Primark’s parent company.But he added: “We will only adapt supply chains when we have a bit more certainty about the long-term position of different supply markets vis-à-vis the US market.”Additional reporting by Kana Inagaki and Emily Herbert in London More

For years, Beijing has had high hopes that Comac’s C919, China’s first domestically made airliner, could challenge the aircraft market dominance of Boeing and Airbus, showing China’s technological self-reliance and the advances made by its state-run plane maker.But as the US-China trade war escalates, analysts are warning that the C919’s heavy reliance on US suppliers for critical components could threaten plans to increase production and even hit the maintenance of passenger jets already in operation. With China’s three big state-owned airlines already flying 17 C919s and Comac expecting to build at least 30 more of the single-aisle aircraft this year, the tensions between Washington and Beijing are highlighting how Chinese companies can be heavily dependent on US companies in their supply chains.The C919, which made its maiden commercial flight in China in 2023, has 48 major suppliers from the US, 26 from Europe and 14 from China, according to Bank of America analyst Ron Epstein. For most western aircraft components for the jet, there are no domestic alternatives readily available, analysts say, meaning the US “can [halt] Comac in its tracks anytime it wants”, said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory.One of the most crucial parts of the C919, its LEAP-1C engine, is built by CFM International, a joint venture between the US group GE Aerospace and French manufacturer Safran. While China has been developing a domestic alternative, the CJ-1000A, it was still being tested and was “not ready yet”, said Dan Taylor, head of consulting at aviation consultancy IBA.While CFM International continued to build the engines, including in France, added Taylor, the core module was produced in Ohio. “If access to that was interrupted, it could become a major headache for Comac,” he said.Other US suppliers for the C919 include Honeywell, Collins Aerospace, Crane Aerospace & Electronics and Parker Aerospace for various critical components and aviation systems. Honeywell did not respond to a request for comment, while Collins declined to comment specifically on its relationship with Comac.“Unlike many other industries, the commercial aerospace industry did not become dependent on low-cost manufacturing in China,” BofA’s Epstein wrote in a note. “Most Chinese suppliers on the C919 are . . . not high value-add subsystems such as engines, controls, avionics or actuation.”Sash Tusa, a UK-based aerospace and defence analyst, said that while the US “has not [yet] said they will not supply [components for the C919] — that may be the next stage”. Ongoing after-market services, including repair and maintenance support of C919 jets already in operation, will also have to rely on US suppliers, aviation analysts say.Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.For now, it was “likely that Comac has enough inventory to cover near-term deliveries”, IBA said. China has also already granted some tariff exemptions on US imports, including several aviation-related products. Safran said last week that China granted tariff exemptions for imports of certain aerospace parts.But if the US at some point decided to restrict exports of critical components to China and “if China stops buying aircraft components from the US, the C919 programme is halted or dead”, Epstein said.Comac has been studying the effects of the tariff increases and sales have “not been impacted”, according to one person close to the company. The aircraft manufacturer did not respond to a request for comment.China’s state-run airlines would be worst affected if US-China tensions derailed Comac’s production capabilities. By 2031, Air China, China Eastern and China Southern Airlines were each expected to operate fleets of at least 100 C919 aircraft, according to Mayur Patel, head of Asia for OAG Aviation.But Comac only delivered 13 C919s last year to Chinese airlines, and aviation consultancy Cirium Ascend said only one C919 was delivered in the first three months of this year.Analysts say Comac’s slow production rate means its aircraft cannot be Boeing or Airbus replacements for the foreseeable future. Beijing appeared to recognise this reality last week, with the commerce ministry saying China was willing to support normal co-operation with US companies, only days after Chinese airlines rejected taking delivery of any new jets from Boeing.The tariffs and uncertainties around western supplies of critical components could also prompt Comac to rethink its priorities to deliver and fly the C919 beyond China.The airliner still lacks international certification, including from the US’s Federal Aviation Administration and from Europe’s aviation regulator, which limits Cormac’s ability to fly outside China and its efforts to boost global sales. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency recently said it would take three to six years for the C919 to gain approval.But according to aerospace analyst Tusa, access to overseas markets may not be a significant issue for the C919. “As long as it supplies a large proportion of the Chinese domestic market, that is good demand in and of itself,” he said.Additional reporting by Claire Bushey in Chicago More

Chinese manufacturers are attempting to avoid the Trump administration’s tariffs by fraudulently undervaluing cargo sent to the US, exploiting a system that American authorities have struggled to police.The Financial Times reviewed offers by Chinese chemicals and packaging suppliers to send goods to small US companies with “delivery duties paid” — a process known as DDP that allows the exporter to cover tariffs.The suppliers said the process would enable them to drastically reduce the cost of tariffs because they would deliberately undervalue the goods sent, or alter their descriptions to lessen the duties owed.“We see more instances of factories in China offering to pay the customs duties for companies, and then sell them the merchandise in the US at prices below what the duties should be,” said Ryan Petersen, chief executive of logistics platform Flexport. The practice threatens to undermine efforts to incentivise US companies to source products from domestic manufacturers, one of the aims of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It might also temporarily insulate American consumers from some price increases to everyday goods.“This is nothing but a tariff dodge,” said Dan Harris, a US lawyer who works with companies that source goods from China. While federal prosecutors would go after US companies colluding in the practice, “there is not much that [they] can do” to pursue Chinese counterparts, Harris added.Aaron Rubin, who owns logistics company ShipHero and a martial arts equipment distributor, 93 Brand, said his Chinese suppliers “have offered to do DDP and pay [the additional tariffs]. They said ‘we are going to cover 100 per cent of the duties’ . . . I would never get a bill.”Businesses such as Rubin’s, which have reported such approaches to US Customs and Border Protection, are concerned that competitors are accepting the deals, leaving law-abiding companies at a disadvantage.The practice “shuts down my ecommerce business”, said Rubin. “I can’t afford to pay a 175 per cent tariff if my competition isn’t going to pay it; no one is going to buy my [more expensive] goods.”The owner of a California-based food manufacturer, who asked not to be named, said one Chinese supplier “offered to change the cogs on invoices to help me evade tariffs” soon after Trump rolled out the increased duties.“My option is to lay off my team or join in the fraud,” the owner said.Some of the Chinese companies that approached US businesses offered to register as a “foreign importer of record”, which would make them legally responsible for paying any duties owed.The US is unusual among major economies for allowing foreign companies without a presence in the country to post a small bond to register as importers, making it hard for authorities to enforce large penalties.A government report in 2008 found that the Department of Justice rarely pursued cases of fraud by “foreign importers of record”, because “it is unlikely that collection actions based upon delinquent duties can be successfully brought in [a] foreign court”.The problem was also highlighted in conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 report, which has functioned as a blueprint for some of the Trump administration’s policymaking.The paper suggested that the US government “either require foreign importers of record (IORs) to make cash deposits far in excess of established duty rates at the time of entry” or “require IORs to register sufficient US assets to ensure timely payment of duties”.Callie Milford, who runs soap and beauty products company No Tox Life, has also been approached by suppliers offering to dodge tariffs. Callie Milford, co-founder of No Tox Life, says some of her suppliers have offered to dodge tariffs More