How the peaceful world of puzzles has been upended by the global trade war

Puzzle people are used to putting pieces in their place. But the chaos of the Canada-U.S. trade war is flipping the industry over, leaving business owners to pick up the pieces. 

"It's the uncertainty. It's nearly impossible to navigate," Bruce Donnelly told Day 6. 

Donnelly is the owner of Puzzles Canada, based in Georgetown, Ont. It's one of the largest puzzle retailers in Canada, stocking 92 jigsaw brands and thousands of different puzzles. It ships thousands of them each week. 

But the current trade war has taken a sizable piece out of those orders. And with continued uncertainty around tariffs, many puzzle retailers on both sides of the border are worried about the future of their businesses. 

The Toy Association, a lobby group for the U.S. toy industry, surveyed 400 of its member companies in April. It found that nearly half of its small or medium-sized businesses were worried they may go out of business because of their government's tariffs. 

In March, Canada announced its retaliatory tariffs against Donald Trump and the U.S., which included a 25 per cent tariff on jigsaw puzzles made in the U.S. And Donnelly didn't have a chance to react.

"We had shipments that were en route. We didn't have a choice. We had to pay the tariff," he said.

Not wanting to put the cost on his customers, Puzzles Canada paid the difference.

Even though Americans make up only 20 per cent of Puzzles Canada's customer base, Donnelly says he's feeling the impact. Half of the brands Donnelly sells are made in China, making them costly to send to U.S. customers.

Initially, the U.S. put a 145 per cent tariff on goods shipped from China. That has since been reduced to 30 per cent. 

"We're definitely [taking] a hit," said Donnelly.

The company has had to make adjustments. He's since had to halt shipments of made-in-China puzzles to the U.S., because those extra fees were just too high. He's also had to increase the price for all customers of games from White Mountain Puzzles, Springbok Puzzles, and New York Puzzle Co., which are all U.S.-made, though he didn't give an exact figure.

Donnelly is bringing in more puzzles from Europe, and he can continue to sell to customers in Canada. Even so, Donnelly says his U.S. sales could be cut in half. 

And it's not just companies in Canada that are struggling.