Tariffs And What to Expect

There’s been a lot of talk about potential tariffs that Trump may introduce and has introduced, and they can significantly impact the art supplies market. Let me explain why and what we can expect from these changes.

For example, while it may seem like Canada is unaffected by U.S. import duties on Chinese goods, that’s not entirely the case. Many art supplies, including paints, brushes, and other materials that are made in the U.S., will be impacted, leading to higher prices.

China is a major supplier of organic pigments, aluminum tubes, and other packaging materials. While some of these products may be sourced from U.S. companies, many will not, which could contribute to the price increases. Also, many parts for manufacturing equipment come from China, which is also a factor leading to the price increase.

It’s no secret that some U.S.-based art supply manufacturers outsource production to China for items like brushes, cases, pencils, charcoals, and more. As a result, the prices of these products will likely increase, as well.

Duties on aluminum and other metals will cause price increases on art supplies packaging.

If Canada introduces duties on the US-made products, prices inside Canada will, apparently, go up. Brands that are made in the US include: Daniel Smith, General’s, Bee Paper, Strathmore, Jack Richeson, Gamblin, Speedball, Grafix and others.

Art supplies market infrastructure was established decades ago, and often we have an intermediate “link” in a chain called “distributors”. They work with manufacturers, import, arrange drop-ship and resell art supplies to the retailers. Many distributors have exclusive contracts with manufacturers meaning only they can work with this or that manufacturer within a specific region. That’s convenient for the market participants, however, may impact the market in a short-term perspective.

Many distributors that work with Canada are located in the US. If products come, let’s say, from the EU or any other region where tariffs imposed by the US are in effect, the duties will be included in the price even though Canada doesn’t charge extra duties. Brands that may be affected include: Art Spectrum, Baohong, Da Vinci, Escoda, EssDee, KOLOS, Rosa,  Liquitex, Wolff’s, Yasutomo, Old Holland and others.

A good news is that the first round of retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada, which are currently in effect, does not include artist’s paints or brushes, but it does cover handmade art. However, the second round, set to take effect in three weeks, will include a 25% tariff on artist’s paints and brushes made in the U.S. This will likely lead to price increases on U.S.-made products.

Many brands from Europe go to our shop directly from manufacturers and will not be involved in the “trade war”. Brands include Tri-Art, Borcianni and Bonazzi, Kolibri, Rosemary, MasterClass, White Nights, Roubloff, Podolsk, and many others that we’re going to bring to Canada this year. We’re working on increasing partnerships directly with manufacturers and hope to bring more exciting brands to our shop.

Some artists ask me why we don’t have art supplies made in Canada that much. I’ll have a separate post about this, but to make the long story short – because there are not too many art supply manufacturers here. Most of them don’t work with online-only businesses like ours. Some sell art supplies on their own websites at a price that we cannot match due to the costs and expenses involved in stocking. However, we support Canadian companies by buying packaging materials, pigments, and other raw materials from Canadian companies and shipping through Canada Post and Purolator.