Australian film workers could face ‘significant impacts’ from Trump’s movie tariff

More Trump tariffs are set to be on the way after the US President spouted a vague condemnation about offshore filmmaking.

“A national security threat” is how US President Donald Trump described offshore filmmaking in a post to his Truth Social platform, announcing a move to impose 100 per cent tariffs on film productions made outside the US.

“The movie industry in America is dying a very fast death. Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” said Trump.

With Australia and New Zealand often being key destinations filmmakers turn to for their productions, workers in the industry were quickly alarmed at Trump’s proposal – which has seemingly arrived out of nowhere.

Australia’s Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) union shared its thoughts on Trump’s potential tariff on movies produced in “foreign lands”, stating: “No detail has been released, and it is unclear what impact there would be for the Australian film industry if this proposal were to eventuate.”

“Australia’s film industry is critically important for the economy, providing diverse employment for tens of thousands of people each year, and is also an essential part of the nation’s social and cultural fabric.”

Robert Brooks, professor of econometrics and business statistics at Monash Business School, claimed that Trump’s proposed tariffs could potentially have significant impacts – though agreeing with the MEAA on the unclear nature of the announcement.

“The proposed new Trump movie tariff potentially has significant impacts. However, at present, there is a lack of detail on how such a tariff might work and how it would apply,” Brooks said.

“Given the distributed nature of film industry supply chains from ideation to screening and their international nature, the specific impacts would depend on the details of how that would apply.”

“Based on what has been said so far, the tariff idea appears to be motivated by a desire to onshore back to the US more of the production component and to the extent that is successful it would impact production in Australia and a range of other countries.”

“This also depends on definition, so we would need to better understand implications for local content focus, co-production models and production that is designed for release to screening services as distinct from cinema.”

“The uncertainty about US tariff policy and how it would apply is not supportive to investment in both the film industry setting and also more broadly.”

The haphazard nature of Trump’s announcements constantly puts industries on edge. As previously reported by HR Leader, Trump’s original “Liberation Day” tariff announcements spurred calls for Australian businesses and workers to “stay on their toes” – however, targeting the arts was an unexpected manoeuver even from Trump.

Despite the limited information, the MEAA confirmed that the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, is “monitoring the situation closely”.

Kace O'Neill

Kace O'Neill is a Graduate Journalist for HR Leader. Kace studied Media Communications and Maori studies at the University of Otago, he has a passion for sports and storytelling.