Local bookstore owners voiced their concerns over the federal government’s decision to add books to the list of goods which could face a 25 per cent counter-tariff against the United States.
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According to Julie King-Yerex, a co-owner of Magpie Books, nearly 50 per cent of Canadian books are printed in the U.S.
“All of those books would be subject to a 25 per cent tariff, which includes books that are written by Canadian authors … books that are written in Edmonton, by Edmonton authors,” said King-Yerex on Thursday.
She said there’s a lot of uncertainty about who will pick up the 25-per-cent cost increase between consumers and bookstores, adding that customers could turn to Amazon for their literary needs.
“There’s only about a 40-to-45-per-cent profit margin. If you cut that by 25 per cent, it basically makes it almost impossible (for bookstores) to operate,” she told CTV News Edmonton.
“Bookstores are community gathering spaces, and if we lose those, we lose a huge impact on communities … it would destroy the industry,” she said.
Magpie Books co-owner Moriah Crocker thought books wouldn’t make the cut on a tariff list and said it “makes things kind of uncertain about the business.”
“We can’t really rely on information that we have today because it could change tomorrow,” Crocker said. “I would love to see them removed immediately. I think that it’ll really hurt the business.”
Chetan Dave, a professor of economics at the University of Alberta, told CTV News Edmonton the government has every right to place items on tariff but isn’t sure the inclusion of books is the right move.
“A government can include anything in tariffs and retaliatory tariffs,” said Dave. “The problem is Canada is a small, open economy. The United States is a behemoth, so retaliatory tariffs are really silly … It’s a tax on yourself for no reason,” he said.
“What Canada needs to do instead is focus on (removing) interprovincial trade barriers, taking advantage of our trade treaties in Asia and in Europe … building out east-west infrastructure in order to improve our own productivity,” he added.
Steve Budnarchuk, the co-owner of Audrey’s Books, said the federal government might be barking up the wrong tree with the imposed counter-tariffs.
“It’d be really terrific if the federal government would leave us alone, not because I want to protect American books from tariffs, but because I’m concerned about Canadian books,” Budnarchuk said on Thursday.
“Reading is such an essential part of our culture and our society, it (would) be so damaging to impact that,” he added.
“It’s going to be bad for students, bad for professionals, bad for homeowners and individuals.”
King-Yerex said Magpie Books will be sharing a letter on their social media by the end of the week to give book lovers a way to express their concern to the federal government. She added reaching out to local MPs could help remove books off the tariff list.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg
