The administration has yet to explain how the tariff would work or what it would exactly target.
“Commerce is figuring it out,” said a White House official, granted anonymity to share details about the internal process. “Maybe, like, the rights to movies or something,” they offered, adding that a study will be launched.
Experts in the U.S. have pointed out that movies are exempt from tariff orders, per the so-called Berman Amendment from 1988.
Across the Atlantic, confusion — if not surprise — reigned.
“We felt that [cinema] could become a battlefield [amid the trade war]. We’re entering the unpredictable,” said Pascal Rogard, president of the SACD French authors’ society. “This is contrary to international commitments.”
Although the criteria as to what constitutes a “foreign” production remain unclear and contentious, “the political gesture is in line with what we expected to happen,” said a French industry insider who, like others contacted by POLITICO for this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely amid the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s plan.
