Despite widespread anxiety about the effect of expected 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, both tariffs were put on hold yesterday after negotiations between President Trump and Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum.
However, a 10% tariff on Chinese imports is still going through, although Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk in the next few days.
This tariff is in addition to a pre-existing 7.5% tariff on books published in China, and could definitely affect both high priced art books and indie comics that print overseas. So we’re not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.
The Canadian tariffs in particular were expected to have a huge impact on comics periodical publishing – only Marvel uses a large number of US printers for their comics. Several smaller publishers were already expecting huge changes to their business plans if the tariffs had gone through.
With at least a 30 day grace period, publishers and retailers can go back to fretting about how the Diamond bankruptcy will play out.
