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NO
3– 2011
HIGHEST STANDARDS IN FINE ART SHIPPING
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Import / Export Regulations in China
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At the ICEFAT Convention
in Las Vegas this past October, one of our members, Ida Ng of Helu-Trans
(S) Pte Ltd, Singapore, organized an enlightening session on import
taxes in China. This information is actually available at multiple
non-profit institutional websites as well as at the FAQ pages of numerous
international freight and customs brokerage portals. It is widely
agreed that taxation of goods as well as works of art into China is
onerous and costly, aimed more at encouraging exports of its own product
to the rest of the global marketplace, similar to Brazil and other
rapidly developing super powers.
After listening to the presentation, which was as elegant as Ms Ng
herself, many of my previous beliefs were confirmed. There is no way
around these regulations without breaking the law, and as a community
representing the finest art handling companies worldwide, we should
not promote the sort of chicanery employed by less reputable transporters.
Andrew Faintych, Atelier 4’s COO said: “We’ve heard
anecdotally about less than scrupulous art transporters in China who
actively import items into Hong Kong, then move those goods into mainland
China via their own suspicious means.” Whether a free port such
as Hong Kong is the interim safe harbor, or even Taiwan, market pressures
will inspire some concerns to do what they have to do to capitalize
on a combination of (a) their knowledge of how to cheat the local
laws and (b) their foreign customer’s ignorance (or willingly
naive ignorance) of the Chinese import duty laws.
A few years ago, a US-based contemporary art gallery was preparing
to open an annex in China, and because of our long-standing friendship,
asked me if there was a way to bring art works into China on a temporary
bond. I told him that there are ways of bringing goods into China
for exhibition, and this was explained in detail by Ms Ng. If the
exhibition or venue is underwritten by a Chinese government agent,
then yes, with some initial preparation, one can have a temporary
bond and avoid paying taxes. Of course, the shipment would need to
exit China in due time and this was not what my gallery friend was
looking for. I am not certain how he is arranging his imports, and
I really don’t want to ask him. I just hope he’s doing
it the right way, and as with any foreign owned business in China,
it’s probably costing him a pretty Renminbi.
Not only do ICEFAT agents have an ethical right to uphold international
customs laws, but as the temporary custodian of cultural property,
inestimable, we are to avoid all risk. Smuggling, by nature, is risky
business; therefore, it should never be in the arsenal of a fine art
transporter. It’s not fair, and...it’s not funny, so don’t
do it.
Like my father always told me, you have to spend money to make money.
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Jonathan Schwartz,
Atelier4 Inc, New York |
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