Movie tariff shooting Hollywood in the back

In a social media post on Sunday, the US leader said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the US Trade Representative to slap a 100 percent 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!"

The White House said on Monday that it was figuring out how to comply with the president's wish to "Make Hollywood Great Again".

That must be a difficult job for the administration as the film tariff is totally absurd, particularly when it comes to the US, which is the largest film exporter in the world. Also, almost all Hollywood blockbusters today are results of international cooperation making it very difficult to define films produced in "Foreign Lands". If the US leader's argument holds water, it is other countries that need to levy punitive tariffs on imported US films.

The largest importers of US films are the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, France, Canada and Spain. Yet none of them has shared the US leader's concerns.

The US film industry is not only an important pillar of the country's soft power but also a major source of the US' surplus in its services trade. According to data of the Motion Picture Association, which represents major US film studios and streaming services, US movies contributed $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023. That some countries provide incentives to develop their own film industry is not to threaten the US' "national security" but to prevent US films from dominating their domestic market.

It is ridiculous that the US, a country that has been widely criticized for its cultural imperialism, is now pointing a finger of blame at other countries for their film exports to the US, which are much smaller than the US' film exports to them.

Although US film and television production has been hampered in recent years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, with overall production in the US down 26 percent last year compared with 2021, it remains the strongest in the world, and it should not be forgotten that many major economies are witnessing a similar industry trend. It is unfair for the US to attribute the lackluster performance of the industry to foreign competition.

The US' ill-advised tariff policy in other fields has already taken a heavy toll on relevant companies and consumers. But the US administration seems not to have learned any lessons from that. The 100 percent film tariff the US president threatens to impose on imported films, if implemented, will only do Hollywood a disservice as he cannot expect other countries to not take reciprocal measures against US films. That explains why Hollywood filmmakers feel deeply worried about the US leader's film tariff threats.

The US leader's so-called art of a deal consists of unrealistic goals, propaganda, flip-flopping and forced compromise of the opponent. A process intended to make the other party feel helpless under extreme pressure. The US leader's film tariff threats represent just a beginning of such a process in the film industry that is a key source of the vitality of US culture. If the US administration weaponizes its tariff policy as such to include the culture industry, it will not revitalize the US but only accelerate its decline.