Kenya has been identified as a potential “weak link” in a global network allegedly used to reroute Chinese goods to the United States and evade tariffs, according to a new report dubbed  The Great Transshipment Scam .

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The report places Kenya, which is among the beneficiaries of duty-free trade with the U.S. under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), in Tier 3 of its “Shadow Transshipment Network".

The report released by the White House on Thursday, August 13, has described Kenya as a “small, opportunistic Chinese target” with advantages that could facilitate China-linked trade rerouting.

“Tier 3 consists of the Small, Opportunistic Chinese Targets,” the report says, citing factors including low-cost labour, free zones, port access, and bonded warehousing.

📌 What You Need to Know

The report also classifies Kenya as an “African Peripheral Hub", describing it as an emerging port and free-zone way station for selected China-linked trade flows.

Morocco is the only other African country identified alongside Kenya in the report's functional map.

According to the report, China-linked exporters may be attracted to Kenya by its strategic port infrastructure, bonded warehouses, free-trade-zone rules, low-cost labour and niche assembly capacity, as well as preferential access to the U.S. market.

“China-linked exporters gravitate to them because each offers a specialised comparative advantage,” the report says, citing cheap labour and preferential access to the U.S. market among the factors.

The U.S. warns that such arrangements could allow Chinese goods to be relabelled, repackaged, or lightly processed in third countries before being exported to the United States as products originating elsewhere.

President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened “immediate interdiction, penalty tariffs, sanctions, and potential loss of market access” to countries involved in tariff evasion.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke