Every export increasingly carries two products: the good itself and the evidence that makes it admissible. The cost of producing the second may determine who can sell the first. This is an overlooked consequence of selective US–China decoupling. Production costs still matter, but they are no longer the only price of market access. Firms increasingly need to prove where goods originated, which inputs they contain, whether suppliers are exposed to sanctions or other restrictions, how much carbon production generated, and which technologies handled sensitive data. As supply chains become more fragmented, the ability to manufacture competitively is becoming inseparable from…