U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced a plan to impose a 100% tariff on all imported films, calling foreign productions a "threat to national security" and vowing to "make movies again in America."
Mario Pacheco Székely, an American film and television journalist, writer, and film studies professor, warns that this "movie tariff" could unravel decades of global collaboration shaping modern cinema. International co-productions from Europe to Asia, Latin America to New Zealand have been the norm since the 1940s.
"We need people from different parts of the world, with different experiences, accents, colors of the skin, and even different ways to cook or build, to truly tell global stories," Székely says.
Industry observers fear that a blanket tariff will drive American talent and investment overseas, sparking ripple effects across the creative economy. For a generation of filmmakers and audiences connected by streaming platforms and international festivals, the stakes and the world's screens are watching closely.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
