Monday September 29, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 3:08 pm PT | Updated 3:44 pm Sept 30, 2025]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
A 100% tariff on all films produced in countries other than the United States may soon be applied, according to US President Donald Trump in a social media post.
Trump claims that the American industry has been “stolen” by other countries.
It’s unclear if the tariffs would apply to films on streaming services (e.g. Netflix), as well as those shown at cinemas, or how tariffs would be calculated.
After the ‘film tariff tweet’ stocks for companies such as Netflix and Disney dipped briefly then bounced back.
Tax incentives in BC and other parts of Canada have worked over the past many years to build centres of ‘Hollywood North’ in places like Vancouver and Kelowna in BC, and in other major Canadian cities like Toronto.
BC’s response:
In response, today BC Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth Ravi Kahlon held a hastily-announced media availability by Zoom.
The main message from BC’s jobs minister is that “it’s hard to speculate until we see details”.
Exasperation:
As an expression of exasperation at the style of Trump’s seemingly casual and easily-influenced manner of governance, Kahlon today said that this latest tariff threat has come after Trump was golfing with film executives.
“Part of this is to create uncertainty,” said Kahlon in the Zoom call. “That hinders our economy but is hurting the US economy as well.”
If they’re going to do it, Kahlon says he hopes there are more details and certainty.
For now now it’s “just another tweet” unless more details are forthcoming, said Kahlon today.
“It’s very difficult to put a tariff on this type of work,” said Kahlon.
Message to the film sector:
“We’re going to be there to support you,” said Kahlon to the BC film industry during the media availability today.
But he needs to wait for details and then a response would come.
“The resilience of our sector remains strong.” said Kahlon, adding that the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport (Anne Kang) has been working with stakeholders to help diversify the film sector to work with other trade partners. “People have been working on being not so dependent on the United States,” the Minister said today.
Being resilient in the face of constant threat, is Kahlon’s and BC’s economic strategy.
Federal backing:
The federal government “has put in counter-measures and has committed a significant amount of revenue” toward assisting various sectors against the impact of US tariffs, said Kahlon.
“Our supports are still there for the industry,” he said as for BC’s part in managing through the trade war.
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