Donald Trump announced on Sunday via his Truth Social platform that he had authorised a 100% tariff on all films “produced in foreign lands”.
He claimed to have directed his officials to begin implementing the measure immediately, although he offered no details on the mechanism or timeline.
“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!”
China remains the world’s second-largest film market after the US. Although Chinese productions have increasingly outperformed Hollywood releases in recent years, a full-scale tariff would still pose a serious challenge to major western studios, including Walt Disney Company, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros Discovery Inc – all of which are still recovering from the impact of the pandemic.
The global film industry is already beginning to feel the fallout of the universal tariffs announced by Trump. last month, China responded to the announcement by reducing its quota of American films.
“The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favourability towards American films,” the China Film Administration said in a statement last month. “We will follow the market rules, respect the audience’s choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported.”
