China to Cut Art Import Duty Down to 6%

According to China's Ministry of Culture, the Customs Tariff Commission under the State Council recently issued its Notice on the Tariff Implementation Plan for 2012 (ShuiWeiHui (2011) No. 27) deciding that, from 2012, a reduction of duty rate from 12% to 6% may be provisionally applied for one year to the imports of the following arts:

Original oil paintings, pastel drawings and other original handmade drawings;

Original engravings, printings and lithographs;

Original sculptures made of various materials.

If estimated by 2009's trade volume, the tariff adjustment above will bring a cut of CNY 70.00 million in import duty and CNY 12.00 million in import VAT to 2012's art imports to Beijing municipality, which is expected to see CNY 3.0-5.0 billion worth of art trading in 2012.