Luke Vargas

We've talked here before about the flood of Chinese products around the world this year that has helped to power a $1 trillion goods surplus for the country.

But just how those goods are reaching the far corners of the globe, and especially Europe, makes for quite an unexpected story, as the journal's Chelsea Delaney is here to share.

Chelsea, we've got a bunch of fun details to get into here as we paint this picture of what you've called a shadow logistic network.

But first, what led you to report on this?

I'm guessing there's kind of a, I don't know, a trade data instinct that led you to think there's a story to tell.

And then the airline industry usually moves pretty slowly, or at least I thought it did until I heard about some of the carriers that have kind of popped up very quickly to cater to this demand.

Yeah, I was going to say people know DHL, they know FedEx, they know UPS.

Get familiar with My Freighter and One Air, upstarts that are doing a huge amount of volume.

So much of this logistics network growth is fascinating, but it's going to have listeners looking around their own neighborhoods and thinking, is this happening here too?

I'm glad you mentioned de minimis earlier because part of the U.S.

effort to slow down the flood of Chinese products has been precisely to go after tariff loopholes that allow low-value packages to come into the U.S.

without paying duties.

That's what sent a lot of this stuff to Europe in the first place.

Surely Europe must be thinking along those lines as well?

Journal reporter Chelsea Delaney, we've left a link to her reporting in our show notes.

Check it out.

The photos are great.

Thank you, as always, for stopping by.

And that's it for What's News for this Thursday morning.

Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer.