In-bond diversion

Working paper

We show that the US in-bond system of imports may be used by firms to illegally avoid trade barriers, a practice known as in-bond diversion. Digging into official Chinese and Mexican trade statistics, we uncover traces of US quota-hopping in-bond diversion by Chinese exports of textiles and apparel. This is because the illicit scheme involves declaring Chinese exports bound for Mexico but diverting them to the US market while in transit, thus creating a gap between Chinese and Mexican reports. Using the phaseout and removal of US quotas at the end of the Multifibre Agreement as a policy experiment, as well as variation in quota bindingness across products, we show that quota-bound products were associated with larger trade gaps which shrunk following the quota removals. We also find that quotas were associated with larger shares of US imports aimed for transit warehouses, confirming the use of the in-bond system for illegal quota hopping.

Authors: Vezina, P; Rotunno, L

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: University of Oxford
• Series: Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
• Publication date: 2013-07-05
• Paper number: 664
• Keywords: textile and apparel; illegal trade; trade barriers