Looking to stimulate the production of Hollywood films in the United States, President Trump announced a new 100% applied price on product films abroad on Sunday.
For more than two decades, major studios have moved film production in cheaper countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Australia and other countries that offer generous tax advantages to build their local economies, attracting films far from Hollywood.
The migration of well -paid jobs has become a critical problem for Los Angeles, who saw a Dramatic loss of films and jobs production in recent years.
The industry has not fully recovered for the COVID-19 pandemic, labor and dismissal of inherited entertainment companies, many of which have exceeded the creation of streaming services to compete with Netflix.
“I authorize the Ministry of Commerce and the Representative of the United States trade, immediately starting the institute process a 100% tariff on all the films that enter our country that are produced in foreign land,” said Trump late on his article on his Truth social platform. “We want films made in America, once again!”
The details of the plans, as well as if the prices would be imposed on American companies which draw abroad, were not immediately available.
Sunday, cinema leaders expressed their perplexity, wondering how a price would be imposed on a film, which, like a car, has components manufactured in different countries while post-production often occurs in the United States
The film Assn. was not immediately available to comment.
Trump deplored the way “the film industry in America dies of a very rapid death”.
The president said that the countries that have offered “all kinds of incentives to remove our filmmakers and studios from the United States”.
“Hollywood and many other areas in the United States are devastated,” said Trump. “This is a concerted effort of other nations and, therefore, a national security threat.”
The call to American production comes after Trump hit a trio of actors – Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson – to be his “Special ambassadors” in Hollywood. In January, Trump unveiled the initiative, calling Hollywood “a great but very disturbed place”.
The president at the time said that he and his ambassadors would help Hollywood Spring “back, bigger, better and stronger than ever!”
But the envoys have kept a low profile since their appointment and many in Hollywood say they have not heard of them.
At the end of last month, Bloomberg News reported that Voight and his manager, Steven Paul, were preparing to present Trump certain ideas aimed at strengthening American production, in particular by offering national incentives to help regain offshore affairs.
“It is important that we compete with what is happening in the world, so there must be a kind of federal tax incentives,” said Paul in an interview with Bloomberg.
