Trump renews tariff threat on movies made abroad

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday renewed his threat of imposing steep tariffs on films made outside the United States, claiming his country’s industry has been “stolen” by others.

Trump’s remarks come shortly after he threatened a slew of new tariffs to be imposed this week on branded pharmaceutical products, furniture, as well as heavy trucks respectively.

On Monday, Trump returned his focus to the film industry, charging in a Truth Social post that other countries have taken business from the United States, “just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’”

He criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom as “weak and incompetent,” adding that the state has been heavily impacted.

“In order to solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States,” Trump wrote.

He did not provide further details on his plans, or a timeline for when these tariffs might be enacted.

Trump’s latest post echoes a threat he made in May, when he said the US movie industry was “dying a very fast death.”

At the time, he said he was authorizing the Department of Commerce and US Trade Representative to start the process of instituting a 100-percent tariff.

The implications for the movie industry remain unclear for now.

Hollywood is a major sector of the US economy, generating more than 2.3 million jobs and $279 billion in sales in 2022, according to data from the Motion Picture Association.

But in the wake of the Hollywood strikes and the Covid pandemic – which changed how Americans consumed movies, opting to watch at home instead of in theaters – the industry has been struggling to regain momentum, industry insiders have said.

Trump’s posts did not mention if television series, an increasingly profitable and popular sector of production, would be impacted.

Last Thursday, Trump said he would slap separate tariffs ranging between 25 percent and 100 percent on branded pharmaceutical products, kitchen cabinets, upholstered furniture and heavy trucks.

These were to start on Wednesday, he added, with patented pharma products seeing 100-percent duties unless firms were building manufacturing plants in the United States.

Trump reiterated his threat on imported furniture, saying North Carolina “has completely lost its furniture business to China, and other Countries.”