You quote a show in September and build it in March, at costs nobody can predict, against a price the client considers final. Every month in between is unpriced risk.
In force since 8 September · what hit AV and production
- Electronics — lighting, audio, video walls, control, cabling
- Steel and aluminum derivatives — truss, rigging hardware, staging frames
- Furniture — event furnishing and lounge inventory
- Clothing and apparel, textiles — drape, soft goods, crew kit
- Plastic articles — 50% — cases, protection, consumables
Almost your entire replacement inventory sits inside one or another of these categories. This is not something coming in a few months — the duties have been charged at the border since 8 September, and they are on the next invoice you pay.
Talks between Ottawa and Washington have broken down, so plan on this lasting rather than lifting.
What we do about it: we revalue your exposure at real replacement cost, build you a private AI knowledge base on your own inventory and quotes, and scope what to build next. The review also covers who else in the world would buy what you make and do. See what you receive →
What this actually does to a production company
- Your inventory is under-insured. Rental stock valued on pre-tariff replacement cost is now worth more to replace than your policy assumes, and your rental rates were set against the old number too.
- Long-lead quotes absorb everything. A show quoted today and delivered next year takes every intervening increase unless the contract says otherwise.
- Cross-border moves need slack. Gear going south faces heightened scrutiny and classification questions. Carnet paperwork that used to clear quickly now warrants building time into the schedule.
Three things to do this week
- Revalue rental inventory at current replacement cost. This drives both your insurance coverage and your rental rates, and both are almost certainly now too low.
- Add an equipment escalation clause to anything delivering more than ninety days out. Clients accept it far more readily than a price change later.
- Build extra time into every cross-border move. A show that misses load-in because gear sat at a crossing costs infinitely more than the duty on it.
What it looks like in practice
Worked example · A prairie AV and staging company with its own fabrication shop
Eighteen staff, about 90 shows a year, average show around $22,000. Rental inventory would cost roughly $2.4 million to replace. Out back there is a shop that builds custom decks, road cases and scenic units in aluminum and plywood, treated for years as an internal cost centre. Around 15% of revenue comes from shows run across the border in the US.
The shop is the part that got hit hardest, not the lighting. Canada’s counter-tariffs put plywood and laminated wood at 50% and sawn softwood at 25%. Decks and case shells eat sheet goods. The owner was watching fixture prices and had not connected the tariffs to the lumber invoice at all.
Do not buy fixtures ahead of the increase. The moving-light stock is out about a third of the available days. Buying inventory to beat a price rise on gear that already sits idle two days in three loses money faster than the tariff does. Funded, already-planned replacements are a different question.
The US show work may not be touched, and the cases probably are. Section 338 reaches 554 specific tariff subheadings of goods; crew running a show is a service. The cases and decks sold outright to US clients are goods, and advisers are clear you screen by code, not by category — a line away can be untouched. Two of those codes we could not settle without the broker, and we said so rather than guessing.
Then the other half. The fabrication shop is the only part of this business that can sell abroad without putting crew on a plane, and under the CPTPP Japanese tariffs on worked wood and aluminum products — up to 7.5% — went to zero immediately. Australia and New Zealand run opposite seasons, so their busy months are the quiet ones here, with no translation needed and freight as the real obstacle.
What we would build:
- A material cost tracker for the shop — plywood, softwood, aluminum and hardware by origin and tariff code — feeding straight into every deck and case quote.
- A utilization report per fixture and per case, so an equipment purchase is argued from days out rather than from fear of the next price rise.
- A classification register listing every item the company sells outright against its tariff subheading, with the broker’s confirmation stored beside it and an obvious flag where there is none.
- A show costing engine that builds quotes from live material, gear and labour costs and attaches an escalation clause to anything delivering more than ninety days out.
Together that turns a shop nobody was measuring into a priced product line, and stops the quoting from running on last year’s numbers.
What you receive
Six things, built for your company, starting within 48 hours of checkout.
The core is a written review: deep research across your gear categories, suppliers and sector, with a human checking every finding against the actual schedules and discarding what is wrong. You also get a private AI knowledge base trained on your website, inventory list, supplier quotes and client contracts — yours to keep, and able to answer “what does it cost to replace this fixture now, and what should we be charging?” with a source you can check. Running through both is a scoped plan of what we would build, with real hour estimates.
Alongside those: a slide deck, a one-page infographic, and video and audio overviews.
See a complete worked example →
What we would build for your company
- A show costing and quoting engine building quotes from live gear, labour and consumable costs, with escalation logic for long-lead events built in.
- An inventory valuation tracker keeping rental rates and insured values aligned with real replacement cost as equipment pricing moves.
- A cross-border logistics planner managing carnets, manifests and crossing schedules with realistic buffers.
- A project margin dashboard tracking quoted versus actual per show, so the pattern of where quotes go wrong is visible after two events rather than twenty.
And beyond tariffs: crew scheduling, client portals and the systems you have been putting off. See our case studies.
And the other half — who else would buy this?
Your gear and your crew already travel for a living, so the question is not whether you can work abroad but which direction you point. Touring and festival support is bought much the same way in Hamburg or Osaka as it is in Seattle, the custom staging, road cases and rigging you fabricate in-house are products that ship on their own, and anything you have built in software — show costing, crew scheduling, an inventory system — crosses a border with no freight, no duty and no customs paperwork at all.
CETA leaves 98% of EU tariff lines duty-free for Canadian goods, and opens public procurement worth about $3.3 trillion a year.
Japan
Under the CPTPP, Japanese tariffs on worked wood and aluminum products — up to 7.5% — went to zero immediately.
Australia & NZ
Opposite seasons, so their busy months are your quiet ones. No translation, familiar contracts, and freight as the main obstacle.
Getting found
How a promoter or venue on another continent finds your production company in the first place.
Two things worth knowing
There is money for equipment
$7.5 billion in federal support, including non-repayable contributions up to $3 million and a $2 billion fund for shovel-ready capital. The full list →
Temporary imports are different
Gear that comes back is usually handled under a carnet rather than paid duty — but documentation scrutiny has increased. Confirm with your broker before the tour, not at the border.
Questions we get asked
Does gear that comes back count as an import?
Temporary imports for exhibition and performance are typically handled with an ATA carnet or temporary import procedure rather than paid duty. Scrutiny of documentation has increased, so confirm current procedure with your customs broker before you travel.
Should we buy replacement gear now?
If a purchase is already planned and funded, buying ahead of further increases usually wins. Speculative inventory expansion is a different decision and should be tested against your actual utilization rates rather than a fear of higher prices.
How do we raise rates without losing bookings?
Tie the increase to something visible and verifiable. “Replacement cost on this fixture moved in September” is a conversation clients accept. An unexplained percentage on the invoice is not.
Do I have to hire you for software afterwards?
No. The plan is written to be useful whether or not you ever work with us.
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Related
- Where else in the world would buy this?
- Restaurants and bars
- Logistics and freight
- Property management
- The full rules, in plain English
The worked example above is an illustration rather than a client, and every tariff fact in it is real. Operational and strategic guidance from a software studio, not legal, customs, or tax advice. Confirm classification and duty liability with a licensed customs broker. Last reviewed 11 September 2026.