The US Will Hit Chinese Art and Antiquities With an Additional 10 Percent Tariff Next Month as the Trade War Escalates

The trade war between the US and China grew more tangled this
week as President Trump announced a delayed timeline for imposing a new tariff on Chinese imports.
For many American consumers, the news came as a welcome relief.
But for those in the business of buying and selling Chinese
art and antiquities, it still introduced a new 10 percent tax.

Earlier this month, the President threatened to levy the tariff
on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports by September 1, a new 10
percent tax would be applied atop the 25 percent already imposed on roughly half of
$250 billion worth of goods from the Asian country.

But then he reneged on that idea, announcing last week that the
tariff wouldn’t be imposed on certain goods until December 15—a break, he
said, for holiday shoppers who want to buy gifts like cell phones,
computers, video game consoles. Other objects—such as car seats,
shipping containers, and some construction equipment—would be
removed from the tariff list completely due to “health, safety,
national security, and other factors.”

Unfortunately, Chinese art and antiquities, including drawings,
paintings, prints and sculptures, and artifacts more than 100 years
old, were not included among these exemptions. These objects are
part of the roughly $112 billion of imports that will still be
subject to the new tariff on September 1, according to an
announcement made this week by the United States Trade
Representative.

“Today’s decision will hurt small businesses and the art trade
between the US and our allies in the UK and Japan more than it will
hurt trade with China which already bars exports of most Chinese
antiques and antiquities,” Peter Tompa, a Washington, DC-based
lawyer who represents cultural organizations that lobby for museums
and dealers, told the Art Newspaper.

Tompa argued on behalf of these groups at a series of
congressional hearings in Washington, DC, in June, where he made
the point that previous administrations have maintained that art
and other cultural artifacts should remain duty free.

“It’s not going to hurt China, which actually has a mercantilist
approach because they want to repatriate art,” Tompa told artnet
News in May, when Trump first introduced the 25 percent tax. “It
will instead hurt dealers here in the United States, particularly
the ones who want to import or take consignments from Europe.”

“With the tariffs in place, it will be impossible for these
businesses to price artwork competitively within the global art
market,” a representative from the Art Dealers Association of
America said in a statement to the Art Newspaper. “The
tariffs will also stifle the greater cultural exchange that
galleries foster.”

The post The US Will Hit Chinese Art and Antiquities With an
Additional 10 Percent Tariff Next Month as the Trade War
Escalates appeared first on artnet News.