AGTA takes 12.5% gemstone tariff to Bangkok trade talks
Thai finished jewellery entering the United States carries combined duties of 17.5% to 19.5%, the association says. It met Thailand's vice minister for commerce and passed the discussion to the US Trade Representative.
By The Gemstones Desk
What changed
Finished goods pay more. The AGTA told Thai officials in Bangkok that loose coloured gemstones from Thailand enter the United States at 12.5%. Finished Thai jewellery carries combined duties of 17.5% to 19.5%.
What it means
- If you import loose stones from Thailand: The rate the association named is 12.5%, five to seven points below what the same goods carry once set.
- If you buy finished Thai jewellery: The band runs 17.5% to 19.5% and no change to it has been announced.
- What this is not: An agreement, or news of one. No deadline, no value and no counterparty position was published.
Key figures
| US duty, loose coloured gemstones from Thailand | 12.5% |
|---|---|
| Thai finished jewellery, bottom of the band | 17.5% |
| Thai finished jewellery, top of the band | 19.5% |
Source: American Gem Trade Association statement of Monday 21 September 2026, reported 22 September · rates as the association states them
The meeting had a name
One official is named. The association held a private discussion with Kirida Bhaopichitr, Thailand's vice minister for commerce, who led a delegation of senior officials. The meetings ran alongside the Bangkok Gems and Jewelry Fair.
Washington was told after. The AGTA said it shared details of the discussion with the office of the US Trade Representative. No response from that office is reported.
| Goods | US duty | Gap to the loose rate | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loose coloured gemstones from Thailand | 12.5% | — | AGTA, as reported |
| Thai finished jewellery, bottom of band | 17.5% | 5.0 points | AGTA, as reported |
| Thai finished jewellery, top of band | 19.5% | 7.0 points | AGTA, as reported |
| Value of the Thai trade at risk | not published | — | AGTA published none |
Notes on this table
Carat Capital's arithmetic. the third column is a subtraction from the first, shown so it can be checked: 17.5 − 12.5 = 5.0 points; 19.5 − 12.5 = 7.0 points. These are percentage-point differences and not ratios, so nothing here says finished goods pay a given percentage more than loose ones.
Combined. the association describes the finished-jewellery figure as combined duties, meaning more than one line of duty summed, and does not break it down.
What has no number. the association published no value for the trade exposed, no volume, and no date by which an agreement would have to be reached; the last row records that absence rather than leaving it out.
No dollar figure was published
The exposure is unpriced. The association put no value on the Thai trade at risk and named no deadline for an agreement. It said Thailand risks losing market share to competing suppliers without one.
One outlet carries it. This report rests on a single trade write-up of the association's Monday statement. A JCK headline on related AGTA tariff work was not reachable at the URL tried.
The loose rate is not new
The tariff predates this. Carat Capital reported the same 12.5% rate on loose coloured stones on 23 July 2026. The 17.5% to 19.5% band on finished Thai goods has not run here before.
What to watch
- UndatedThe next round of US-Thailand negotiations. The association named no date and none is published.
- Each USTR Federal Register noticeWhere a change to the 12.5% rate on loose coloured stones would appear first.
The story so far
Go deeper
What would change this call
A published exposure figure. The case made here rests on a rate gap with no trade value attached to it; a dollar figure for Thai gem and jewellery shipments to the United States would either make the gap material or make it small. None was published, and none is estimated here.
A combined duty is more than one line
A tariff rate on an import line is rarely a single number. A combined duty sums a most-favoured-nation rate with whatever additional measures apply to that country and product, which is why the association gives a band of 17.5% to 19.5% for finished Thai jewellery rather than a figure. The loose-gemstone rate it names, 12.5%, is quoted flat. Because the two are not built the same way, the difference between them is a percentage-point gap between two stated rates rather than a clean comparison of like duties.
Method
The trade write-up was fetched directly, 431,477 bytes, and its own JSON-LD gives datePublished 2026-09-22T15:03:02+00:00 and dateModified 2026-09-23T09:14:56Z. The 12.5% rate, the 17.5% to 19.5% band, the Bangkok Gems and Jewelry Fair setting, the named vice minister and the referral to the US Trade Representative were all read out of that page's own body text, not from its automated summary block, which carries the same figures but is machine-generated. The association's own site was not opened and is not cited; every claim here is attributed to the single outlet that reported the statement, which is why the article says so twice. A second outlet was sought: JCK's own site answered 200 at its home page, and the AGTA tariff piece was not reachable at the URL tried, so no cross-confirmation exists and this remains a single-source report. That is disclosed rather than smoothed. On the archive test, the entity matches and the period does not: this paper's 23 July 2026 piece covers the same 12.5% rate on loose coloured stones, which is why that rate is presented here as prior coverage rather than as news, while '17.5%', the named vice minister and the Bangkok fair each return nothing in the archive. The verdict is advanced, not repeat: same subject, a generic rate previously, a named bilateral meeting and a second rate band now. The point differences in the table are this desk's subtraction and are labelled as such.