diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 2fab040..05db063 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+backports.csv==1.0.6
 certifi==2017.7.27.1
 chardet==3.0.4
 et-xmlfile==1.0.1
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 2d1b0fa..7b93754 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ packages = [
 install = [
     'odfpy',
     'openpyxl>=2.4.0',
-    'unicodecsv',
+    'backports.csv',
     'xlrd',
     'xlwt',
     'pyyaml',
diff --git a/tablib/compat.py b/tablib/compat.py
index f054ebb..660697d 100644
--- a/tablib/compat.py
+++ b/tablib/compat.py
@@ -27,11 +27,11 @@ if is_py3:
 
 else:
     from cStringIO import StringIO as BytesIO
-    from cStringIO import StringIO
+    from StringIO import StringIO
     from tablib.packages import markup
     from tablib.packages.statistics import median
     from itertools import izip_longest
-    import unicodecsv as csv
+    from backports import csv
     import tablib.packages.dbfpy as dbfpy
 
     unicode = unicode
diff --git a/tablib/core.py b/tablib/core.py
index 809bb6e..78c4dce 100644
--- a/tablib/core.py
+++ b/tablib/core.py
@@ -862,7 +862,7 @@ class Dataset(object):
            against each cell value.
         """
 
-        if isinstance(col, str):
+        if isinstance(col, unicode):
             if col in self.headers:
                 col = self.headers.index(col) # get 'key' index from each data
             else:
diff --git a/tablib/formats/_csv.py b/tablib/formats/_csv.py
index 06e7830..8b536a7 100644
--- a/tablib/formats/_csv.py
+++ b/tablib/formats/_csv.py
@@ -3,15 +3,14 @@
 """ Tablib - *SV Support.
 """
 
-from tablib.compat import is_py3, csv, StringIO
+from tablib.compat import csv, StringIO, unicode
 
 
 title = 'csv'
 extensions = ('csv',)
 
 
-DEFAULT_ENCODING = 'utf-8'
-DEFAULT_DELIMITER = ','
+DEFAULT_DELIMITER = unicode(',')
 
 
 def export_set(dataset, **kwargs):
@@ -19,8 +18,6 @@ def export_set(dataset, **kwargs):
     stream = StringIO()
 
     kwargs.setdefault('delimiter', DEFAULT_DELIMITER)
-    if not is_py3:
-        kwargs.setdefault('encoding', DEFAULT_ENCODING)
 
     _csv = csv.writer(stream, **kwargs)
 
@@ -36,8 +33,6 @@ def import_set(dset, in_stream, headers=True, **kwargs):
     dset.wipe()
 
     kwargs.setdefault('delimiter', DEFAULT_DELIMITER)
-    if not is_py3:
-        kwargs.setdefault('encoding', DEFAULT_ENCODING)
 
     rows = csv.reader(StringIO(in_stream), **kwargs)
     for i, row in enumerate(rows):
diff --git a/tablib/formats/_tsv.py b/tablib/formats/_tsv.py
index 9380b3b..1c6d6a1 100644
--- a/tablib/formats/_tsv.py
+++ b/tablib/formats/_tsv.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 """ Tablib - TSV (Tab Separated Values) Support.
 """
 
+from tablib.compat import unicode
 from tablib.formats._csv import (
     export_set as export_set_wrapper,
     import_set as import_set_wrapper,
@@ -12,8 +13,7 @@ from tablib.formats._csv import (
 title = 'tsv'
 extensions = ('tsv',)
 
-DEFAULT_ENCODING = 'utf-8'
-DELIMITER = '\t'
+DELIMITER = unicode('\t')
 
 def export_set(dataset):
     """Returns TSV representation of Dataset."""
diff --git a/test_tablib.py b/test_tablib.py
index 57b1b39..e7b7233 100755
--- a/test_tablib.py
+++ b/test_tablib.py
@@ -1,18 +1,19 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 """Tests for Tablib."""
-
-import doctest
-import json
-import unittest
-import sys
-from uuid import uuid4
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import datetime
+import doctest
+import json
+import sys
+import unittest
+from uuid import uuid4
 
 import tablib
 from tablib.compat import markup, unicode, is_py3
 from tablib.core import Row
+from tablib.formats import csv as csv_format
 
 
 class TablibTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -227,21 +228,21 @@ class TablibTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
         # Delete from invalid index
         self.assertRaises(IndexError, self.founders.__delitem__, 3)
-            
+
     def test_json_export(self):
         """Verify exporting dataset object as JSON"""
-        
+
         address_id = uuid4()
         headers = self.headers + ('address_id',)
         founders = tablib.Dataset(headers=headers, title='Founders')
         founders.append(('John', 'Adams', 90, address_id))
         founders_json = founders.export('json')
-        
+
         expected_json = (
             '[{"first_name": "John", "last_name": "Adams", "gpa": 90, '
             '"address_id": "%s"}]' % str(address_id)
         )
-        
+
         self.assertEqual(founders_json, expected_json)
 
     def test_csv_export(self):
@@ -571,6 +572,15 @@ class TablibTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
         self.assertEqual(_csv, data.csv)
 
+    def test_csv_import_set_with_unicode_str(self):
+        """Import CSV set with non-ascii characters in unicode literal"""
+        csv_text = (
+            "id,givenname,surname,loginname,email,pref_firstname,pref_lastname\n"
+            "13765,Ævar,Arnfjörð,testing,test@example.com,Ævar,Arnfjörð"
+        )
+        data.csv = csv_text
+        self.assertEqual(data.width, 7)
+
     def test_tsv_import_set(self):
         """Generate and import TSV set serialization."""
         data.append(self.john)