Canadian booksellers have united to ask the prime minister to exempt books from the 25 per cent counter-tariffs that are due to take effect on a further $125 billion worth of goods imported into Canada from the U.S. on April 2.

The government intends to impose the levy if the U.S. doesn’t remove the tariffs that apply to Canadian goods.

In a rare collaboration, Canadian Independent Booksellers’ Association executive director Laura Carter and Indigo founder and CEO Heather Reisman asked Prime Minister Mark Carney, in a letter dated March 20, to exclude books from the upcoming tariff immediately, arguing that not doing so would have “devastating consequences for Canadian readers, our businesses, and our cultural landscape.”

The letter points out that the majority of books sold in Canada are published by the Canadian divisions of multinational publishers, so books written by Canadian authors but printed in and distributed through the U.S. would still face the additional tariff.

“Unlike interchangeable consumer goods we know that readers will not likely substitute a book arriving via the U.S. for a Canadian printed and warehoused book,” they say in the letter. “At this time there is nowhere near the capacity in Canada to handle all of our printing and warehousing. This tariff threatens the survival of bookstores and the livelihoods of thousands of Canadians.”

In outlining the goods that would be affected by the second round of counter-measures, the government has asked for feedback from stakeholders until April 2.

The potential impacts of the trade war on the Canadian book business have been uncertain since U.S. President Donald Trump first announced his plans to implement broad tariffs on all goods imported from Canada. Books that go into the U.S. from Canada have so far been exempt from the U.S. tariffs, though it was not always clear that would be the case.

The multinational publishers that had warehouses in Canada all shut their Canadian distribution operations over the last 20 years. Simon & Schuster moved distribution to the U.S. in 2004 after a landmark federal ruling in 2002 overrode the long-standing foreign investment rules that allowed Canadian-owned distributor Distican to be sold to its major American agency, Simon & Schuster. After the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Competition Bureau approved the merger of two of the country’s largest trade publishers, Bertelsmann-owned Random House of Canada and Pearson-owned Penguin Canada in 2013, distribution was shifted south of the border starting in 2014–2015. Both publishers had previously operated warehouses in Canada. HarperCollins Canada moved its distribution to the U.S. in 2015, which impacted a number of Canadian-owned publishers who had contracted for distribution with HarperCollins.

Canadian divisions of multinational publishers contacted about this situation by Q&Q have not yet commented, though Simon & Schuster Canada said it is aware of and monitoring the situation. 

Although the majority of books by Canadian authors sold in Canada are published by the multinationals, the majority of Canadian authors are published by Canadian-owned publishers, who are not affected by the tariffs.

Jack Illingworth, executive director of the Association of Canadian Publishers, told Q&Q that although there is little direct impact of this counter-measure on Canadian independent publishers since very few of their books are printed in the U.S., the organization is concerned about the effects this may have on the industry at large.

“We’re worried about the viability of booksellers, the potential for U.S. retaliation (Canada can currently ship books to the U.S. tariff-free, but Congress can end that at any point), and the long-term impact of abandoning Canada’s practice of keeping culture off the table in trade disputes,” Illingworth said in an email. “That last item could be a problem in any future review or renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, as it is the principle that safeguards our ability to fund and regulate cultural industries. In the longer term, Canadian printing capacity could become an issue if the multinationals move more of their production here.”

As Illingworth points out, books facilitate the exchange of knowledge.

“Books aren’t a fungible product like drapes or cheese. Someone who wants a specific book wants only that book. While we’d love readers to explore the wealth of fantastic Canadian-published books that are in the market, it would be a mistake to limit the choices that are available in the marketplace,” he said. “We’re strongly opposed to a one-way tariff on books and have been advocating to government to that end.”