Film producers' body calls Trump's tariff move ‘short-sighted and self-defeating'
Even as more clarity is awaited regarding US President Donald Trump's move to impose a 100 per cent tariff on all foreign-made films releasing in America, the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association (IMPPA) has condemned it.
'This move is not just short-sighted, it is self-defeating — akin to shooting oneself in the foot,' said Abhay Sinha, IMPPA president.
The move by Trump, 'reportedly undertaken under the pretext of national security and to boost local film production', directly threatens the long-standing cultural and business ties between the Indian and American film industries, said Sinha.
He also said that the association is in the process of writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking immediate diplomatic intervention to urge the US Government to reconsider and withdraw these unjust sanctions.
In his social media post on Sunday, Trump instructed the Commerce Department and US Trade Representative to place a 100 percent tariff on films that are 'produced outside the United States and imported into America'.
In recent years, Hollywood filmmakers have been preferring London, Toronto or Sydney for production work due to cheaper labour and tax rebates. This has reportedly led to substantial dip in productions in the US.
Expressing his concern over the fact that the movie Industry in America is 'dying a very fast death', Trump wrote: 'Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Therefore, I am authorising the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands.'
The announcement comes at a time, said Sinha, when the global film industry, including Indian cinema, continues to grapple with the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Such a move, he feared, would not only deal a serious blow to Indian producers and distributors but would also disrupt the business of cinema chains in the US, many of which rely heavily on Indian films to attract diverse audiences and maintain profitability.
Producer-director Anil Nagrath told The Indian Express that if the American government wanted to check the trend of movie production moving away from Los Angeles to reduce the budget, it should offer subsidies to filmmakers.
'Most of the big Indian movies release in the US as well as other global markets. Such a move could affect the box-office collections of these movies,' he said. Sinha believes that imposing such heavy tariffs risks 'triggering countermeasures', leading to a damaging cycle that will hurt businesses on both sides.
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