The complex supply chain that carries books from publishing houses to Canadians’ shelves often requires them to be printed or warehoused in the United States – especially among the major multinational publishers, which account for the vast majority of books sold in Canada. Mr. Carney’s book, for instance, was published by Penguin Random House Canada’s Signal imprint. It’s one of potentially thousands of books written by Canadian authors and published by a Canadian house that is still made in the United States, and could therefore be susceptible to countertariffs.
This dynamic both complicates the easy sloganeering of “Buy Canadian” and, should countertariffs be imposed on U.S.-printed books, could threaten the well-being of independent bookstores, which already face thin margins and steep competition from much larger retailers Indigo and Amazon, the latter of which also has capacity to print books on demand in Canada.
Bookstores could also be forced to either absorb major price increases, leaving less revenue for overhead costs, or pass the increases onto consumers. Those readers could easily seek cheaper books online, such as through Amazon, which could more easily handle price increases because of its massive scale.
“The difference this will make to Americans will be negligible at best,” Mr. MacKay said in an interview after posting about the Mr. Carney book conundrum on social media. While countertariffs might be helpful in a trade war, even if Canada wins, putting them on books could mean ”the entire Canadian publishing and bookselling industry will be extinct,” he added.
Because consumers seek out specific titles, “we know that readers will not likely substitute a book arriving via the U.S. for a Canadian printed and warehoused book,” Ms. Carter and Ms. Reisman wrote. “At this time there is nowhere near the capacity in Canada to handle all of our printing and warehousing.”
In an e-mail, Ms. Carter said tariffs on U.S.-printed books would “be devastating for independent bookstores and a serious threat to their survival.”