Mad Maths: US Tariff On Film
Trump’s reign of tariff terror spreads to the entertainment industry, this week announcing a 100% tariff on films made in foreign lands.
The US President announced the move via his Truth Social platform in a vague post bemoaning the death of the American film industry. It has caused a lot of raised eyebrows and puzzled expressions from filmmakers around the world as they struggle to comprehend how such a tariff would be policed.
Australian film director Bruce Beresford questioned the sanity of the proposed tariff in an article by Helen Trinca published in The Australian (9 May), describing it as: “a loony move by an insane President” who fails to understand filmmaking as an international endeavour.
A Foreign Affair
The co-operative nature of filmmaking means few movies, especially Hollywood blockbusters, are produced without financial assistance from international sources. Film projects take place across multiple locations around the world and utilise local production crews, which minimises production costs.
For example, Australia, like many countries, offers generous grants and tax offsets for productions that film here. In his statement, Trump accuses other countries of using these incentives to lure projects away from the US in a concerted effort he likened to a national security threat.
But the statement lacked any detail on how such a tariff would be implemented and regulated. Nor did it mention what criteria will be used to determine a ‘foreign made film’. At this point, it’s a broad definition and most likely, the tariff will apply to US films made in association with international affiliates.
However it is structured, any tariff on film will be a cost passed on to consumers, possibly through a tax levied on distributors or on cinema tickets. Placing further financial burden on consumers during a cost-of-living crisis has dangerous implications for cinemas already struggling to retain dwindling audiences.
Image: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
The Big Chill
Without further detail as to how the film tariff will be structured, this latest salvo in the current trade war only creates more confusion and uncertainty. There are fears it will have a chilling effect on global film production, which is closely tied in with the sensitive mechanisms of finance and international relations.
In Australia, the film industry is worth around $5 billion to the national economy, a figure heavily dependant on overseas co-operation as well as our reputation as a viable and profitable filming destination. This latest round of tariffs potentially puts all this in jeopardy, as Beresford fears, regressing Australian film production back to the 1970s.
Given shifting attitudes towards the US under Trump’s presidency, the whole thing might ultimately blow up in Trump’s face and lead to further damage for the American film industry. Trump’s aggressive tariff campaign has already motivated global consumers to consider alternatives to US products. Likewise, film companies may begin to seek alternative avenues for funding and producing their work.
The Devil’s Advocate
Trump’s motive is to revive the US film industry at someone else’s expense, making the proposed tariff sound suspiciously like a consumer-funded corporate bailout for Hollywood. If the American film industry is truly dying, the fault lies within Hollywood itself. Long gone are the glory days of the classic Hollywood studio system when American films and stars held cultural supremacy.
Hollywood has lost its authority and relevance, largely seen as being out of touch with the general public. Once the epitome of glamour, its image has been irreparably tarnished by countless scandals and controversies, a decline only hastened by the downfall of Harvey Weinstein. The American film industry isn’t dying – it has been rotting from the inside out for decades.
One could argue that if Trump wants to make American film great again, start making great American films again.
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