How counter-tariffs could make it harder to support Canadian books

The Canadian government is proposing additional counter-tariffs on U.S. goods. On the list of items that could be affected are U.S. books coming into Canada.

The thing is, Canada's publishing industry is more entwined with the States than many readers may realize.

Today on Commotion, The Globe and Mail's business & culture reporter Josh O'Kane joins host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to explain why this proposed policy has Canadian book stakeholders concerned.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: I think the obvious question is, how does a counter-tariff on books coming from the United States into Canada end up impacting the book economy here? And it just so happens that Liberal leader Mark Carney's book is maybe the perfect way to illustrate how that works. Do you want to tell people how it works?

Josh: Yeah. So last week, indie bookstores across the country started rapidly talking to each other about what's going to happen with the counter-tariffs. And Paul MacKay, the manager of King's Co-op Bookstore in Halifax, basically just put out a little tweet thread and then at the end of it he's like, "You want a really good example? Mark Carney." His 2021 book Value(s), the latest edition that Paul had at King's Co-op Bookstore, he opened it up and it said, "Printed in the United States." So what does that mean? It means that the sitting prime minister at that moment had a book printed in the United States — which if the federal government were to put counter-tariffs on books, as is currently on the proposed list, [then] even the prime minister's book would be subject to tariffs coming into the country.

Elamin: I have to imagine somebody listening to this going, "Wait, what do you mean it's printed in the United States?" Because I do think that is part of things that people maybe don't understand. I should say, we both have books out…. Mine was printed here in Canada, because I'm a patriot, and yours was printed in the United States, presumably because you're not. Do you want to maybe talk a little bit about how that works? Because we are both Canadian. We are both with Canadian publishers. And yet part of the supply chain of how large publishers work is some printers are in the U.S.

Josh: Yeah, and I know everyone tunes into Commotion because they want to hear about supply chains.

Elamin: They do today, baby. Let's go.

Josh: A lot of this has to do with the fact that, I think it's just under 95 per cent of English-language books sold in Canada are through the larger multinational companies, so Penguin Random House Canada, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins in particular. The big three here in this country, they have integrated supply chains around the world. They also, because they have so much of the market, have a lot of Canadian authors, including both of us. And as a result, with these — again, I'm so hesitant to use this phrase — integrated supply chains around the world, of course they're going to print where it makes the most sense for those organizations. This is the result of globalization. Which is, again, I'm sure exactly why people want to tune in to this show.

Elamin: But this stuff really informs how you get the entertainment that you get and the books that you get.

Josh: Exactly. The same thing about record labels, radio stations across North America over the last 30 odd years; it isn't just books. So as a result, because so many different books are printed in the United States, including by Canadian authors, you are going to have books by Canadian authors who could be subject to this tariff.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Josh O'Kane produced by Ty Callender.