Trump threatens 100 per cent tariff on foreign-made films

NEW YORK (AP)

President Donald Trump is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the US.

In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has authorised the Department of Commerce and the Office of the US Trade Representative to slap a 100 per cent tariff “on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands.”

“The movie industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote, complaining that other countries “are offering all sorts of incentives to draw” filmmakers and studios away from the US.

“This is a concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”

It wasn’t immediately clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented. It’s common for both large and small films to include production in the US and in other countries.

Big-budget movies like the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” for instance, are shot around the world.

Incentive programme for years have influenced where movies are shot, increasingly driving film production out of California and to other states and countries with favourable tax incentives, like Canada and the United Kingdom.