https://tradewarchina.com/ How global trade actually works — tariffs, shipping, manufacturing and the long restructuring of supply chains, explained rather than shouted about. en © 2026 Container Line Media Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/who-actually-pays-a-tariff-and-why-the-answer-is-it-depends/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/who-actually-pays-a-tariff-and-why-the-answer-is-it-depends/ The importer writes the cheque, but that settles almost nothing about where the cost finally rests. Incidence is decided by which side can walk away. Tariffs & Policy Ipsita Mohanty Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/rules-of-origin-how-a-product-gets-a-nationality/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/rules-of-origin-how-a-product-gets-a-nationality/ A phone assembled in one country from parts made in six others has to count as being from somewhere. The test that decides it is more consequential than most tariff rates. Tariffs & Policy Wei-Lin Tan Sun, 09 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/the-classification-code-that-decides-what-an-import-costs/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/the-classification-code-that-decides-what-an-import-costs/ Before anyone argues about a rate, somebody has to decide what the thing is. That decision is made in a numbering system most people have never heard of. Tariffs & Policy Wei-Lin Tan Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/percentage-or-per-kilo-why-the-shape-of-a-duty-matters/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/percentage-or-per-kilo-why-the-shape-of-a-duty-matters/ Two duties can raise the same revenue and land very differently. The difference is whether the charge tracks value or quantity. Tariffs & Policy Sunil Bharadwaj Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/most-favoured-nation-is-a-floor-not-a-favour/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/most-favoured-nation-is-a-floor-not-a-favour/ The phrase sounds like special treatment and means close to the opposite. It is the default rate that everyone gets unless something else applies. Tariffs & Policy Ipsita Mohanty Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/the-barriers-that-are-not-tariffs-and-often-bite-harder/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/the-barriers-that-are-not-tariffs-and-often-bite-harder/ Duties are visible, published and comparable. Almost everything else that restricts trade is none of those things. Tariffs & Policy Sunil Bharadwaj Sat, 25 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/anti-dumping-duties-and-the-problem-of-proving-a-price-is-too-low/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/anti-dumping-duties-and-the-problem-of-proving-a-price-is-too-low/ Trade remedy cases turn on comparing a price in one market with a price in another. Almost every step of that comparison is contestable. Tariffs & Policy Wei-Lin Tan Thu, 23 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/why-raw-materials-enter-cheap-and-finished-goods-do-not/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/why-raw-materials-enter-cheap-and-finished-goods-do-not/ Duty rates in most schedules rise with each stage of processing. That gradient quietly decides where value gets added. Tariffs & Policy Wei-Lin Tan Sun, 19 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/tariff-rate-quotas-two-prices-for-the-same-product/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/tariff-rate-quotas-two-prices-for-the-same-product/ A quota that does not forbid imports but makes the ones beyond a threshold much more expensive. The interesting question is who gets the cheap allocation. Tariffs & Policy Sunil Bharadwaj Thu, 16 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/duty-drawback-and-the-goods-that-only-pass-through/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/duty-drawback-and-the-goods-that-only-pass-through/ Most customs systems accept that a country should not tax goods it does not consume. The schemes that implement this reshape where assembly happens. Tariffs & Policy Wei-Lin Tan Sun, 12 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/how-customs-decides-what-a-shipment-is-worth/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/how-customs-decides-what-a-shipment-is-worth/ An ad valorem duty needs a value to apply itself to. Arriving at that figure involves more rules than most importers expect. Tariffs & Policy Ipsita Mohanty Thu, 09 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/why-firms-pay-duties-they-could-legally-avoid/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/why-firms-pay-duties-they-could-legally-avoid/ Preferential agreements cut duty to zero on a great deal of trade that still enters at the standard rate. The reason is paperwork, not ignorance. Tariffs & Policy Ipsita Mohanty Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/what-a-tariff-cannot-do/ https://tradewarchina.com/tariffs/what-a-tariff-cannot-do/ Duties change relative prices, and relative prices change behaviour. What they do not do is create capacity, skills or supplier ecosystems. Tariffs & Policy Ipsita Mohanty Fri, 03 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/the-suppliers-a-company-cannot-name/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/the-suppliers-a-company-cannot-name/ Most manufacturers know who they buy from. Very few know who their suppliers buy from, and almost none know the tier below that. Supply Chains Wei-Lin Tan Sat, 27 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/one-component-one-supplier-and-an-entire-industry-waiting/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/one-component-one-supplier-and-an-entire-industry-waiting/ A part worth a fraction of a product's cost can stop its production completely. Value share and criticality are unrelated quantities. Supply Chains Wei-Lin Tan Wed, 24 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/the-bullwhip-how-a-small-demand-wobble-becomes-a-factory-shutdown/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/the-bullwhip-how-a-small-demand-wobble-becomes-a-factory-shutdown/ Order volatility grows as it travels upstream. The amplification is caused by rational behaviour at every step, which is what makes it hard to stop. Supply Chains Sunil Bharadwaj Mon, 22 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/lean-or-buffered-how-firms-decide-how-much-stock-to-hold/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/lean-or-buffered-how-firms-decide-how-much-stock-to-hold/ Inventory is money sitting still, and stockouts are sales that never happen. The balance between them rests on assumptions that have shifted. Supply Chains Abhijit Kar Thu, 18 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/why-lead-time-decides-more-than-price-does/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/why-lead-time-decides-more-than-price-does/ A cheaper supplier four weeks further away is not cheaper. The difference is carried in stock, and stock is paid for continuously. Supply Chains Wei-Lin Tan Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/the-real-cost-of-adding-a-second-supplier/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/the-real-cost-of-adding-a-second-supplier/ Everyone agrees dual sourcing is prudent. Fewer people cost it properly, which is why so many critical parts still have one source. Supply Chains Sunil Bharadwaj Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/reading-a-bill-of-materials-like-a-map-of-risk/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/reading-a-bill-of-materials-like-a-map-of-risk/ The parts list that tells engineering what to build also tells you where the product is exposed. Most firms only use it for the first purpose. Supply Chains Wei-Lin Tan Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/make-it-or-buy-it-where-a-manufacturer-draws-its-own-boundary/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/make-it-or-buy-it-where-a-manufacturer-draws-its-own-boundary/ Every firm decides how much of its product to build itself. The answer moves over time, and the reasons it moves are structural. Supply Chains Wei-Lin Tan Thu, 04 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/why-suppliers-cluster-within-an-hour-of-each-other/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/why-suppliers-cluster-within-an-hour-of-each-other/ Component makers rarely spread evenly across a country. They pile up around each other, and the reasons are older than modern logistics. Supply Chains Wei-Lin Tan Tue, 02 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/three-kinds-of-chokepoint-and-why-only-one-is-geographic/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/three-kinds-of-chokepoint-and-why-only-one-is-geographic/ The word suggests a strait or a canal. In practice most supply bottlenecks are technical or corporate, and they are far less visible. Supply Chains Abhijit Kar Fri, 29 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/why-tracing-a-product-back-to-its-source-is-harder-than-it-sounds/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/why-tracing-a-product-back-to-its-source-is-harder-than-it-sounds/ Consumers, regulators and buyers increasingly want to know where material came from. The chain rarely keeps records in a form that can answer. Supply Chains Sunil Bharadwaj Sun, 24 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/when-a-component-needs-permission-before-it-can-cross-a-border/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/when-a-component-needs-permission-before-it-can-cross-a-border/ Some goods move under licence rather than under a duty rate. The mechanism is entirely separate from tariffs and behaves differently. Supply Chains Sunil Bharadwaj Fri, 22 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/chains/shipping-it-generic-and-finishing-it-late/ https://tradewarchina.com/chains/shipping-it-generic-and-finishing-it-late/ Holding stock in a half-built state solves a problem that neither more inventory nor better forecasting can. The technique is called postponement. Supply Chains Wei-Lin Tan Mon, 18 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/factories/why-moving-a-factory-takes-years-rather-than-months/ https://tradewarchina.com/factories/why-moving-a-factory-takes-years-rather-than-months/ The building goes up quickly. Everything that makes the building produce sellable output takes far longer, and most of it cannot be bought. Manufacturing Abhijit Kar Sat, 16 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/factories/the-learning-curve-why-the-thousandth-unit-costs-less-than-the-tenth/ https://tradewarchina.com/factories/the-learning-curve-why-the-thousandth-unit-costs-less-than-the-tenth/ Unit cost falls with cumulative production rather than with calendar time. That single fact explains a great deal about industrial geography. Manufacturing Abhijit Kar Tue, 12 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/factories/minimum-efficient-scale-and-why-some-plants-have-to-be-enormous/ https://tradewarchina.com/factories/minimum-efficient-scale-and-why-some-plants-have-to-be-enormous/ Certain processes are uneconomic below a size, and that size decides how many plants a whole world can support. Manufacturing Rukmini Pathak Sat, 09 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://tradewarchina.com/factories/labour-cost-is-a-smaller-share-of-the-bill-than-the-argument-assumes/ https://tradewarchina.com/factories/labour-cost-is-a-smaller-share-of-the-bill-than-the-argument-assumes/ Wage comparisons dominate discussion of where things are made. For many products, direct labour is a modest fraction of what the product costs. Manufacturing Abhijit Kar Tue, 05 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT