Chicago – May 05, 2025
resident Donald Trump on Sunday extended his trade war to the cinema.
Trump, in an evening post on his social media platform Truth Social, said he has instructed the Commerce Department and US Trade Representative to place a 100% tariff on films that are produced outside the United States and imported into America.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump wrote in his post. “Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
It’s not at all clear how such a tariff would be imposed. Films are intellectual property, not goods, so they represent a kind of service that is not currently subject to tariffs. However, the USTR notes that some services can be subject to certain non-tariff trade barriers, such as regulations and tax incentives. Those could disadvantage American filmmaking.
Many foreign cities have offered large tax breaks to film and televisions studios to shoot movies and shows outside of Hollywood. That has led to a large number of productions to shift operations to places like Toronto and Dublin. In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a massive tax credit to bring back production to Hollywood.
