U.S. President Donald Trump says he's directed his government to "immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff" on any non-U.S. movies coming into the country.
In a post to his Truth Social on Sunday (May 4), Trump said the movie industry in the United States is "DYING a very fast death." He said countries are offering "all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States," adding that Hollywood and other areas within the country are "being devastated."
"This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!"
Trump added he would be authorizing the Deprtment of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative to immediately start the process of putting 100 per cent tariffs "on any and all movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands."
In December, the B.C. government boosted two provincial tax credits to keep productions coming to B.C. One of those is the Film Incentive BC that supports Canadian-content production, while the other was the production services tax credit, which is an incentive for international projects made in B.C. The production services tax credit was upped to 36 per cent, and for projects that bring in more than $200 million to B.C. receive an additional two per cent.
Premier David Eby, during an unrelated news conference Monday (May 5), told the film industry "don't panic," adding "the president tweets a lot of stuff."
Eby said the implementation challenges of this are "profound and hard to understand."
"Try to imagine as an American, an option for two versions of Netflix, one where you get just a handful of productions, the other where you pay $50 a month or $100 a month, and you get to see what everyone else in the world gets to see."
Eby added that even if the president does somehow find a way to implement the tariff, B.C. will stand with the film industry locally and internationally.
"We are protecting the rights of Americans to see what they want to see, which includes high quality productions film right here in Canada."
He said B.C.'s film industry is "strong and growing," adding that HBO's The Last of Us recently signed on for a third season, to be filmed in B.C. Eby added it's a nine-figure production. FX's award-winning Shogun will also be returning to B.C. for a second season.
"Buckle up. Port Moody (is) to become historic Japan."
According to Creative BC, the province's film industry generated $2.7 billion in gross domestic product in 2022, which is roughly one per cent of B.C.'s gross domestic product. Another $2 billion was generated in 2023, which was impacted by multiple industry strikes.
Eby said the film industry "touches every corner of our province" and also drives tourism.
"People travel some distance to visit the location of Canadian films and television shows."
The premier added B.C. will maintain close connections with its U.S. film counterparts.
"I mean, it's hard to even describe a separate film industry between Canada and the United States. We're so tightly integrated. We have a strong domestic film industry here that tells our stories as Canadians, but many of the people who work on those productions also work on huge blockbuster productions that notionally originate in the United States that are often internation productions built in multiple countries."
