President Donald Trump said Monday that he would impose a 100% tariff on foreign movies, repeating a threat that he first made in May without taking action.
In a pair of Truth Social posts, the president said he would impose new taxes on “any and all movies that are made outside of the United States” and would levy “substantial Tariffs on any Country that does not make its furniture in the United States.”
As is often the case with the president’s social media statements, he provided no additional details, and the White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment. It is unclear when any of the threatened tariffs would take effect, what specific goods they would apply to, and what legal authorities the president would rely upon in imposing them.
In May, when Trump first promised to tax foreign movies, he said imported films posed “a National Security threat” of “messaging and propaganda.”
The reference to national security suggests that the president might rely on a provision of a 1962 trade law that he has used to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.
But the Commerce Department does not appear to have begun the required investigation that would be needed before such tariffs can be levied, according to a list of ongoing probes maintained on a department website.
A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association, an industry group, had no comment.
The U.S. sells more movies overseas than it imports, recording an annual trade surplus of more than $15 billion, according to the MPA website.
The president’s Monday post did not repeat the national security claim but said “Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’”
American-made films are often shot overseas in places such as Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, which offer incentives for productions to film there. Tentpole movies, such as “A Minecraft Movie,” “Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning” and “Jurassic World Rebirth,” were mostly or entirely filmed overseas. London has become a central locale for American-made films. Marvel’s next “Avengers” sequels are in production there.
It’s unclear how the Trump administration would apply a tariff on foreign-produced films, because movies can be considered a service, not physical goods. It’s also unclear what the value of movies are and what the criteria would be to identify films as an import.
“On a practical level, I don’t see how you can put tariffs on movies based on where they’re made,” said William Reinsch, a trade specialist with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “These days they’re made everywhere in multiple locations with both American and foreign actors and complex production arrangements. Are the ‘Mission Impossible’ movies American? Trying to figure that out would be a mission impossible.”