China Spent Years Gaming US Trade Laws — Congress Just Hit Back

The House voted unanimously on Monday to give the Justice Department (DOJ) more firepower against tariff evasion and other trade crimes. China is the obvious target.

Trump set the table in June by signing an executive order that tightened requirements for foreign importers and cracked down on forced labor, undervaluation, and illegal transshipment. Congress followed.

The Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act, or PAIL Act, would establish a dedicated trade-crime unit within the DOJ's Criminal Division. Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson (IA-02) co-led the bill with Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08). It passed without a single vote against it. 

Krishnamoorthi spelled out who Congress has in mind.

“Today’s unanimous House passage of the PAIL Act is an important victory for American workers and manufacturers who have been forced to compete against companies based in the PRC that violate U.S. trade laws. Tariff evasion, illegal transshipment, forced-labor violations, and other trade crimes hurt American workers and undermine our industries.”

PAIL gives DOJ lawyers a single place to track those cases. The Criminal Division would assign attorneys and support staff focused on trade crimes, including cases spanning multiple federal districts. DOJ would also train and coordinate with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 

Prosecutors could pursue criminal and civil cases simultaneously. The attorney general would then have to tell Congress each year how many charges and indictments resulted from the program and how much the DOJ spent on it.

There is no shortage of material.

American steelmakers have been asking Washington to get tougher on this for a while. The American Iron and Steel Institute backed PAIL when it was reintroduced in 2025, pointing to fraud, transshipment, and duty evasion by China.

AISI President and CEO Kevin Dempsey was pretty direct.

"For too long, China has circumvented U.S. trade laws by way of fraud, transshipment and duty evasion. These actions have harmed American businesses, including the steel industry."

Perfectus Aluminum and several related companies agreed to a $549 million False Claims Act settlement in May. The government accused them of importing roughly 2.2 million aluminum extrusions from China worth about $800 million, spot-welding them together, and calling them finished aluminum "pallets." The duties didn't cover finished pallets. Chinese aluminum extrusions were.

The government estimated the companies dodged as much as $3 billion in tariffs.

Boise Cascade got caught up in a Chinese transshipment scheme. The company pleaded guilty in April and agreed to pay a $6.3 million criminal fine after buying roughly $30 million in Chinese hardwood plywood that had been routed through Malaysia. The plywood was subject to anti-dumping and countervailing duties totaling more than 200 percent. 

Boise Cascade wasn't the importer of record. Prosecutors still got them.

Its plea says the company knew the plywood had historically come from China, knew its supplier had transshipped products before, and watched the price barely move after the duties went into effect. DOJ called some of that "willful blindness."

The House Judiciary Committee advanced PAIL 23-0 the same day Trump signed the executive order. 

Hinson wants the Senate to finish the job.

“China has spent decades finding ways to undermine American workers and our economy. My bill will finally give the DOJ real tools to stop these blatant violations and ensure penalties are meaningfully enforced.”

The House part wasn't close. It wasn't partisan, either.

Now the PAIL Act goes to the Senate. CCP-backed companies have spent years finding new ways around American tariffs. Congress just voted unanimously to give the DOJ people whose job is finding them.

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