There’s a whole bunch of schemes and scams, and one of them is making cheap shit in Mexico (or insert other dingy manufacturer for cheap) and avoiding Tariffs by labeling it as Chinese or some other country. Slap a good old ‘Made in China’ label on it.
Mexico (or whatever) get’s to keep a good PR, because if their products are shit, you’ll probably blame China. Chinesium goods already have an established label of cheap and sometimes work. So it’s a global PR maintained by selling knockoff Nation goods.
Hypothetically, if proposed tariffs to Mexico are 25% and the ones to China are 10%, people can get by using fake addresses and other schemes to pay lower taxes. It’s not duty free but it’s damn close. You might wonder where I hypothetically pulled those numbers from, and it’s not my ass.
I used to work in a lab, and we had a mass recall on Mexican Manufactured IC chip components, we sourced them from Japan after and had no issues. So yea, idk what the culture or quality is, but Mexican shit didn’t cut it.
Everyone knows ‘Made in China’ is practically a brand name, so many importers will look to leverage that to avoid supply chain complexity or commit a little fraud to get by customs.
You might even get shit made pennies on the dollar using actual slave and child labor from US territories or some obscure shithole like a Libyan Slave market, or Bangladesh, or some other small exploited population. Did you know China actually has labor laws? Fucking wild, I thought suicide nets were crazy, but imagine that, A communist country has child labor laws.
This type of tactic is also used to get around trade embargos, trade sanctions, and even arms dealing. There are plenty of cases of some random hobknobs getting rich from trading in guns or AK’s or whatever from one country to another to the final stop of arming militants or a government CIA contract to arm militants. You can read about it via wardogs or lord of war or whatever.
If you’re doing this trade tactic right, you might even leverage trade deals and get paid even MORE for doing a little ‘label arbitrage’ a sort of ‘National Origination laundering’. Oh yea, I import it into X country labeled as Y, and then import it to Z country labeled as W, and they paid me for it via their nation’s subsidized regs.
Talk about arbitrage.
If you’re curious on specific examples, just look it up. I can’t do all the leg work for your lazy ass.
As a side note
Products exported to other countries might try to sell shit labeled ‘Made in Italy’ or ‘Made in USA’, in order to market higher. So companies and products might try to pass by a fraud scheme of faux prestige by borrowing from reputable countries.
You know, like selling a Fake Rollie.
There’s a counterfeit market for everything. And people spend big bucks thinking they sourced something good for cheap.
If it’s too good to be true, just remember the person fucking you over, get their name and address, and send them a picture of their family, that way they think twice before fucking you over.
See, Pro Unethical tip, you don’t have to carry out a threat if the implication of the threat is good enough.
Just learn to imply threats better and you won’t actually have to get your hands dirty.
Or you know, doubt, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If you want the safe ethical option.
In Closing
People lie. That’s a thing. Shouldn’t be a news flash. But if you’re an asshole like me, than news flash.
Why do people lie? For many reasons. Reputation, money, pussy, all of the above.
People who are greedy for money and subsequently thirsty for pussy, are gonna find ways to game the system to make more money. They’re only simps if they lose or don’t get laid.
So yea, think twice on those made in X country stickers. Chances are, you can peel them and see the real country of origin, or atleast the previous label. It’s a bit trickier with tags, because they typically just rip that shit and sew a new one on.
It is what it is. Welcome to the Global Logistics Supply Chain.
*Not Valid Financial, Legal, Life, or Any Advice