A look at some of the creative ways companies try to dodge high tariffs
npr.org
npr.org
The trick used there is exploiting that if you export something to have it undergo modifications abroad and then subsequently re-import it, the import rules are different and you typically do not pay the normal tariffs.
Now, in Norway we don't have a lot of tariffs in general, but we do have some significant ones on food and such, including cured hams, to protect local producers.
So, someone clever figured out how to exploit this. Buy a suitable pig carcass in Spain, transport it to Norway and import it as a whole pig carcass which has a low tariff, then have the trucks do a U-turn right across the border and drive back to Spain, unopened. Only fresh fish have export tariffs here in Norway, so nothing to pay there.
Back in Spain you have the pig get processed into your Serrano or Iberico cured ham[2], and then transport it back to Norway. When it comes back you point to the original import declaration and claim the cured ham is a modified pig, and thus not pay the tariff for cured hams.
Ham and other processed foodstuffs are not merely "modified" versions of the input ingredients; they are distinct products.
I think the missing part of the story is that the importers are getting away with it using the universal trade lubricant: a little bit of $$$.
edit: Oh and I realize I was having a brainfart, so "modified" should have been "processed". One of those words that can map to multiple English words.
[1]: https://www.nrk.no/norge/ellevill-skinkereise-1.11613122
Sending ham back to Spain for further curing and mechanical processing would just be considered processing under EU customs rules since it gets sent out as ham...and comes back as ham.
Then I recalled the article I had read some years later and managed to dig it up.
Still, a creative trick to avoid tariffs, if wasteful.
Tariffs right now exist to as a way to favor particular businesses and choose winners and losers.
Authoritarians reward loyalty and punish dissent. Under authoritarian regimes law is not a limit but a tool or a means.
These tariff's exist to cause chaos which causes wealth centralization, but they also exist to reward loyal businesses and allow them to out compete any of their ethical competitors who might stand against the authoritarian.
I think of schiit inc which works hard to make everything in the US, or the apple mac pro made in texas
> A 2024 study found companies that made substantial investments in connections to Republicans before and during the first Trump administration were more likely to secure tariff exemptions, while the reverse was true of those who contributed to Democrats.