This post last updated on 22 August 2025
I regret that I must, once again, suspend sales of paper books to the United States.
While books printed in Canada are exempt from tariffs under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), shipments are being delayed now that the de minimis tariff exception for low-value packages is coming to an end.
In a nutshell, Canadian cross-border shipping is in disarray. One of the companies I use to send books to American customers reports that if US Customs and Border Patrol finds a single package with incomplete or ambiguous paperwork, they are refusing entry to the entire truck.
I do not want one of my customers books to be on that truck, nor do I want them to pay unnecessary fees.
So, I think it best to allow the dust to settle and wait until systems are in place to deal with any new costs and restrictions. Americans can still buy and download e-books, which remain exempt from tariffs — at least for the time being.
As to what the future holds, that is difficult to say.
I have a monograph on the academic painter William Bouguereau in the works, and I was thinking about trying something higher end, with sewn bindings and thick art paper... but if I were to print it in China as planned, anyone who buys a copy from the States will (by my calculations) still get dinged with a 27.5% tariff. Cue the angry customer emails and reversed credit card charges. So that project is on hold.1
I might produce it as a small format, limited edition that can be shipped overseas at a reasonable price. There is, after all, a Commonwealth full of potential readers. What’s old is new again.2
I’ve heard that other art publishers are also sitting on their hands. If the tariffs make it less attractive to print in China, I wonder how someone like Benedikt Taschen will manage.
I say this tongue in cheek, but still…
Great map.
Sorry about the news, though, both for your sake and for my country's sake. Crazy policy.