Trump says he will impose 100% tariffs on foreign-made movies

On May 4, US President Trump said that he would impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made films. He has instructed the US Department of Commerce and the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) to take necessary measures to impose additional tariffs on imported films.

Trump announced the above news on his own social platform. Trump said that the US film industry is “dying rapidly” and condemned foreign governments for poaching American filmmakers and studios. He advocated that the US film industry should be protected by a 100% tariff.

Trump claimed that the decline of the US film industry “has dealt a devastating blow to many regions.” He put forward a logic that this recession was “caused by collusion of foreign governments and constitutes a national security crisis.”

Trump has not yet made it clear how to tax movies. The United States currently imposes a 0% tariff on imported film from abroad, but now theater screenings are mainly in digital form.

How to deal with “digital distribution content” is still unclear

The way of watching movies is also changing, and streaming services such as Netflix in the United States are rising. It is not clear whether the tariffs Trump has proposed on foreign films will be limited to storage media such as film or hard drives, or will also include digital streaming.

World Trade Organization (WTO) members, including the United States, have pledged since 1998 not to impose tariffs on digital content. One reason for this is that it is technically difficult to impose tariffs.

The commitment is updated every two years, and the current version is valid until the end of March 2026. Some countries in the global South have advocated that this commitment should be abolished.

If the United States also imposes tariffs on digital distribution content from foreign countries, it will violate international agreements and may be criticized by various countries. It is also the major platform companies in the United States that benefit from not imposing tariffs in the digital field, so there may also be voices of concern in the United States.

Previously, the United States has been criticizing EU countries, Canada and other countries for setting restrictions in the film field to protect their own culture, and has pressured them to lift these restrictions.

However, contrary to the past, this time the United States may highlight the weakness of Hollywood to the world by protecting its own industry through tariffs.