US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was ordering a new front in his tariff war – extending his “America first” blitz to foreign-made films and claiming that Hollywood was being “devastated” by the number of filmmakers and studios working overseas.
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If his administration follows through on the president’s remarks, it would be the first time that a Trump tariff is imposed on services rather than manufactured goods.
“I am authorising the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100 per cent tariff on any and all films coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands,” he wrote on social media.
“This is a concerted effort by other nations and therefore a national security threat,” he added.
Trump has been using national emergencies as an enabling device to rapidly push through policies that undercut US norms and traditions, an approach that is increasingly facing legal challenges.
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On his first day in office in January, Trump made executive declarations claiming that the US was facing emergencies in immigration as well as terrorism and energy.
