diff --git a/import_export/formats/base_formats.py b/import_export/formats/base_formats.py
index fb71b11..7933760 100644
--- a/import_export/formats/base_formats.py
+++ b/import_export/formats/base_formats.py
@@ -164,6 +164,12 @@ class TSV(TextFormat):
     TABLIB_MODULE = 'tablib.formats._tsv'
     CONTENT_TYPE = 'text/tab-separated-values'
 
+    def create_dataset(self, in_stream, **kwargs):
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            # python 2.7 csv does not do unicode
+            return super(TSV, self).create_dataset(in_stream.encode('utf-8'), **kwargs)
+        return super(TSV, self).create_dataset(in_stream, **kwargs)
+
 
 class ODS(TextFormat):
     TABLIB_MODULE = 'tablib.formats._ods'
diff --git a/tests/core/exports/books-mac.tsv b/tests/core/exports/books-mac.tsv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1cc5de4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/core/exports/books-mac.tsv
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+id	name	author_email
+1	Some book	test@example.com
diff --git a/tests/core/exports/books-unicode.tsv b/tests/core/exports/books-unicode.tsv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e586724
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/core/exports/books-unicode.tsv
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+id	name	author_email
+1	Some bookš	test@example.com
diff --git a/tests/core/tests/test_base_formats.py b/tests/core/tests/test_base_formats.py
index 8245436..3a59377 100644
--- a/tests/core/tests/test_base_formats.py
+++ b/tests/core/tests/test_base_formats.py
@@ -74,3 +74,31 @@ class CSVTest(TestCase):
         with open(filename, self.format.get_read_mode()) as in_stream:
             data = force_text(in_stream.read())
         base_formats.CSV().create_dataset(data)
+
+
+class TSVTest(TestCase):
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.format = base_formats.TSV()
+
+    def test_import_mac(self):
+        filename = os.path.join(
+            os.path.dirname(__file__),
+            os.path.pardir,
+            'exports',
+            'books-mac.tsv')
+        with open(filename, self.format.get_read_mode()) as in_stream:
+            actual = in_stream.read()
+        expected = 'id\tname\tauthor_email\n1\tSome book\ttest@example.com\n'
+        self.assertEqual(actual, expected)
+
+    def test_import_unicode(self):
+        # importing tsv UnicodeEncodeError
+        filename = os.path.join(
+            os.path.dirname(__file__),
+            os.path.pardir,
+            'exports',
+            'books-unicode.tsv')
+        with open(filename, self.format.get_read_mode()) as in_stream:
+            data = force_text(in_stream.read())
+        base_formats.TSV().create_dataset(data)
diff --git a/tests/database.db b/tests/database.db
index 29e644c..73a7485 100644
Binary files a/tests/database.db and b/tests/database.db differ