The United States and China have been embroiled in a pretty serious trade war which has resulted in various tariffs on imported and exported goods between the two countries. According to new reports from Reuters, the Trump administration began applying 15% tariffs on more than $125 billion in consumer good imports from China. China has responded by imposing more tariffs on United States sourced goods. But where that will impact manga fans is that now these tariffs will apply to books, and the current way many books are printed — including manga — will be affected considering how China is crucial to the process.
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The extent of how much this will have an impact on manga in the United States is currently unknown at this point, but many publishers print their books in China due to the competitive rates opposed to printing elsewhere. These competitive prices lead to more collector’s or premium editions being more widely available, and if this trade war continues manga fans could see a decrease in what is available.
While many publishers still print their manga in the United States, this will have a greater impact on the more expensively put together manga releases. It’s a bit too early to completely spell doom for how many manga releases will be impacted if this trade war continues, but there is a lot to consider if tariffs between the two countries continue to rise.
Printing can often be one of the more expensive factors when producing a manga release, and any increase could spell choosing a more viable series than another. It’s a simple matter of watching how production costs rise, and those costs could potentially be passed onto the consumer. If the worst case scenario comes to pass, a publisher may have to choose between publishing more copies of a guaranteed seller rather than the fan-driven releases that won’t get much attention.
But with the advent of digital releases, reading manga digitally and legally is becoming more of a viable option. So the manga industry in the United States will survive after all this, but there might be some changes to what is available and how it’s produced. The trade war between the United States and China has no signs of slowing down either, and many things — naturally — beyond manga will be affected as the relationship between the two countries continues to deteriorate.
