US president Donald Trump has said he was to impose a 100% tariff on movies from outwith America.
In a Sunday night post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has authorised the Department of Commerce and the Office of the US Trade Representative to impose a 100% rate “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!”
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It was not immediately clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented. It is common for both large and smaller films to include production in both the US and other countries.
Numerous high-budget blockbusters have been filmed in Scotland in recent years, including the most recent Indiana Jones movie, The Batman with Robert Pattinson, and the upcoming reboot of The Running Man.
“Other nations have been stealing the movie-making capabilities from the United States,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday night after returning from a weekend in Florida.
“If they’re not willing to make a movie inside the United States, we should have a tariff on movies that come in.”
Incentive programmes 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.
China has ramped up its domestic movie production, culminating in the animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2 grossing more than two billion dollars (£1.5bn) this year. But even then, its sales came almost entirely from mainland China.
In North America, it earned just 20.9m dollars (£15.7m).
According to the MPA, the American movies produced 22.6bn dollars (£17bn) in exports and 15.3bn dollars (£11.5bn) in trade surplus in 2023.
Trump has imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a 10% baseline tariff on goods from other countries, with even higher levies threatened.
Elsewhere, the US president said he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a California island.
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In a message on his Truth Social site on Sunday evening, Trump wrote: “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering.
“When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
He added: “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat whose district includes the island, questioned the feasibility of reopening the prison after so many years.
“It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one,” she wrote on social media.
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