Trump threatens tariffs on movies, but experts say it may not be so simple

U.S. President Donald Trump has set his sights on Hollywood, threatening tariffs and other policies to discourage companies from making films abroad.

The film and streaming industry is the latest area of focus for U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariff strategy, but experts say there are many challenges to imposing tariffs on production companies.

Leading up to the election, Trump campaigned on reviving domestic manufacturing and production in the United States.

On Sunday night Trump took to social media saying, “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. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat.”

Trump spoke from the White House lawn on Monday telling reporters, “Other nations have been stealing the moving-making capabilities from the United States … and we’re making very few movies right now … Hollywood is being destroyed.”

It is still unclear exactly what film industry tariffs would look like or when they would be implemented.

Trump’s tariff policy thus far has featured specific duties added to products made abroad and imported into the United States, with the most significant duties including 145 per cent on imports from China.

But when it comes to films and streaming video content, tariffs could be more complicated as there is less of a tangible product to focus on and more of a service with many layers to deconstruct.

“It (the film industry) is not a single sector, it’s different aspects of a single sector,” says Charlie Keil, cinema studies professor at the University of Toronto, adding, “and it’s also not clear whether it makes sense to do it as a broad swath or to differentiate according to the level of input that comes from a non-American source.”