Trump says U.S. will impose 100% tariff on foreign films
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would impose a 100-per-cent tariff on all foreign-made movies, an unprecedented move that threatens to upend Hollywood’s global business model.
The step signals Trump’s willingness to extend protectionist trade policies into cultural industries, raising uncertainty for studios that depend heavily on international box-office revenue and cross-border co-productions.
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Trump announced the measure in a post on his Truth Social platform, claiming U.S. movie-making is losing ground to international competition.
“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing candy from a baby,” he wrote.
However, it was not immediately clear what legal authority Trump would use to impose a 100-per-cent tariff on foreign-made films.
White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on how the tariffs would be implemented. Warner Bros Discovery, Comcast, Paramount Skydance and Netflix also did not immediately respond to requests.
The president had first floated the idea of a movie tariff in May but offered very little details, leaving entertainment executives unsure whether it would apply to specific countries or all imports.
Studio executives told Reuters earlier this year that they were “flummoxed” by how a movie tariff might be enforced, given that modern films often use production, financing, post-production and visual effects spread across multiple countries.
The move has drawn skepticism from legal and trade analysts. Some argue films are a form of intellectual property and part of the global trade in services, an area where the U.S. often runs a surplus, raising questions about the legal basis for tariffs.
Co-productions with foreign studios have also become more common, adding to doubts about how such films would be classified.
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The Viceroy of Vacuity vacuums your wallet again.
Thats a new one. I guess no more Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.
Will this lead to less subtitles? I need them for half the shows I watch in English because the accents are so strong.
I need subtitles for South Park.
Morning...wwweeelllll no more Croc Dundee for you mob then. 🦘
Or 007.
Or spaghetti westerns.
I gave up on Slow Horses.
First and foremost, "flummoxed" is a word not used often enough in daily American speech.
Secondly, how would you even impose or enforce this?
So if someone wanted to make a movie that had a part of the plot in Paris, it would cost an arm and a leg to build an Eiffel Tower near L.A. Of course they might be able to use the one in front of the Las Vegas Paris Hotel. Actually my family and I stayed at that hotel on a vacation way back when.