Trump Announces New Tariffs on Foreign-Made Films

Donald Trump is back with a renewed tariff threat from May. But this time, threatening to impose 100% tariffs on foreign-made movies.

“Our movie-making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing candy from a baby,” Trump said in his Truth Social post, while taking time to also insult California’s Governor, and didn’t specify when or how to even enact the tariff. This isn’t even the first time Trump has threatened to impose a tariff on foreign-based movies, but he didn’t exactly specify when or how the tariff could be enacted. If he were able to actually find a way to do it, it would mark the first time he’s essentially imposed a tariff on a service rather than a good. With Trump’s tariff threat looming once more over Hollywood, it could greatly disrupt the industry given that many movies, including Spider-Man 4, are filmed abroad.

Many film productions that even include studios in Hollywood are multinational, they involve crew from multiple territories involved in different tasks, and may often involve scenes that require shooting in locations outside of the United States. It remains unclear if Anime would be involved in this renewed import tax, Anime News Network has pointed out in their recent article that many modern anime productions are co-produced and financed by both Japanese companies and companies from other countries. Plenty of anime productions are mostly staffed by Japanese staff or people who reside in Japan, while some anime productions or episodes that were subcontracted to Chinese or South Korean studios, or have hired animators in the United States (among other countries), and other staff members outside of Japan. This news comes as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle continues its red-hot streak in the Global Box Office, and in the Top Five in North America’s Box Office, not to mention with Crunchyroll’s upcoming Movie Nights event on October 20th, and then the premiere of Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc coming up on October 24th, with anime films reaching their highest point in popularity this year. According to Data from the Motion Picture Association, it also shows that American films made $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023.

Source: Anime News Network, CNN, PBS

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