U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest spat with Europe over tariffs is prompting a legislative impasse regarding European exports to the U.S. On Monday, European Union lawmakers postponed a vote to ratify a long-gestating trade deal that had capped U.S. import tariffs at 15%.
Though the tariffs being discussed in the EU parliament apply only to physical goods and not film and TV, Trump recently reiterated his threat to slap hefty tariffs on films made overseas as part of the global trade war he has embarked on during his second term as president.
Now, Trump’s legal authority to randomly impose tariffs is being concretely challenged by both the U.S. Supreme Court and the EU parliament.
Over the weekend, Trump announced new additional international import tariffs “over and above our normal tariffs already being charged” after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his previously implemented global tariffs policy in a landmark decision on Friday. This, in turn, has caused Europe to warn that the agreed trade deal is on hold.
Trump has twice threatened to impose a 100% tariff on films made abroad, without explaining how that would work or what legal authority would allow it.
“I’m going to be putting tariffs on movies from outside of the country — if they’re made in Canada, if they’re made in all these places, because Los Angeles has lost the movie industry,” Trump told the New York Post in late January.
“It’s just hot air again,” a producer told Variety in September after Trump took to social media with a fresh wave of threats to impose tariffs on films made outside the U.S.
Hollywood unions have praised Trump’s attention to the issue of runaway production, but sought to redirect his interest to a more limited goal of extending and reauthorizing U.S. federal tax deductions that assist American producers to shoot more movies locally.
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