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!"
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."
"The president tweets a lot of stuff. The implementation challenges of this are profound and hard to understand exactly how this would work."
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.
More to come.
