President Donald Trump’s proposed 100-percent tariff on foreign-produced films will cause “economic hardship” in Canada and the United States, The Canadian Media Producers Association said Monday.
The global film industry was left reeling after Trump’s latest tariff announcement, even as details of the plan remained unclear.
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“The proposed actions outlined in US President Donald Trump’s announcement will cause significant disruption and economic hardship to the media production sectors on both sides of the Canada-US border,” the CMPA, a national lobby group, said in a statement.
Hollywood films and major US television productions are regularly filmed in Canada.
A survey of studio executives revealed that their top five preferred production locations for 2025 and 2026 were all outside of the United States, due to competitive tax incentive schemes on offer.
Canada’s largest city, Toronto, was first on the list, with the west coast city of Vancouver ranked third.
Toronto’s municipal government told AFP in a statement Monday it was “aware” of Trump’s announcement and was “working to gather further details to help understand any potential impacts on Toronto’s film industry.”
Hollywood is a major sector of the United States’ economy, generating more than 2.3 million jobs and $279 billion in sales in 2022, according to the latest data from the Motion Picture Association.
But in the wake of the Hollywood strikes and the Covid pandemic impacts — which changed how Americans consumed movies, opting to watch at home instead of in theaters — the industry is still struggling to regain its momentum.
Trump claimed Hollywood was being “devastated” by a trend of US filmmakers and studios working abroad.
AFP