Containers Sit At LA Port As Trump’s Movie Tariff Order Stuns Film Industry
Shipping containers sat in place on Monday at the port of Los Angeles as the entertainment industry reacted with alarm and bafflement after President Donald Trump said he would impose a 100% tariff on all movies produced outside the U.S., but issued few details on just how such a levy would work.
Veteran studio executives said the announcement on Sunday left unanswered the timing of the proposed levy and how it would be enforced for an industry whose biggest-budget films are often produced across several continents.
Trump’s pronouncement followed his meeting at Mar-a-Lago with his Hollywood ambassador, actor Jon Voight, special advisor Steven Paul and media executive Scott Karol.
Slapping levies on an industry like film would mark a major extension of tariffs as a policy tool into services, for which the U.S. runs a sizable trade surplus. And like the auto, pharmaceutical and chip industries before it, Trump’s declaration threatens to put another business in a tariff-induced state of limbo.
The White House’s trade policy is aimed at boosting U.S. industrial activity, but the series of levies and rollbacks has sapped consumer and business confidence.
