What Trump's proposed film tariff could mean for Hollywood North

Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 100 per cent tariff on films produced outside of the U.S. 

Despite Trump saying later that he would consult the film industry before making any moves, there's still a lot of uncertainty about what this latest addition to the trade war might mean for Hollywood North.

Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud unpacks what we know — and don't know — so far about this looming policy change with Kate Ziegler, the president of ACTRA Toronto, and J. Miles Dale, a film producer who won an Oscar for The Shape of Water.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Kate, how surprised were you when you saw Trump making that announcement on Truth Social on Sunday?

Kate: I wasn't super surprised. I think we're all kind of watching, thinking about … when will something come closer to my circle? And also there have been some, I would say, disruptions going on in Washington. There's been some lobbying going on to do something, to join the tariff fight in a way that has been really kind of frightening. So I certainly didn't know, but I wasn't like, "Whoa, how did this happen?" It was kind of like, "Right, OK, Sunday night. What's Monday going to look like?" You know?

Elamin: Yeah, this idea that you said — when is this going to hit my circle? — I think that is a hallmark of the Trump presidency. Every industry is like, what's going to happen to us? Miles, were you surprised when the announcement happened?

Miles: I'm not really surprised by anything that he says or that the administration is doing right now, because the bar has become bananas. But a lot of people had been asking me, do you think this is going to hit our industry? And I said I certainly hope not, because we're an extremely integrated global industry and we cross borders pretty effortlessly. And then I couldn't really figure out how they might be able to administer it. It's not like a bag of avocados that comes from Mexico…. We have people from all over the world who work on these things. We do our posts in Los Angeles, and sometimes we shoot a movie in two or three different places. So I think that we were hoping there wouldn't be, and now here we are. And now I think people are all very confused about how it might work.

But I think more than anything, it's a catalyst to a conversation. The lack of work in Los Angeles, the birthplace of our industry, has been getting a lot of press lately…. So if it can be a good catalyst to a conversation— I notice, for example, in this Jon Voight manifesto or whatever you want to call it, there's a call for a 10 per cent federal U.S. tax credit, which I think we all think would be a great thing for our brothers and sisters there in the U.S.; there's lots to go around. Even though in Canada, most provinces have a film industry — obviously, B.C., Ontario and Quebec foremost, but also in the Atlantic provinces, and in Alberta and Manitoba to a lesser extent, Saskatchewan — so a federal tax credit seems a little more equal. In the U.S., that's less so. So I think some states might not be up for that. It's a possibility. And if that were to happen, it would be a good thing because it's not going to put so much of the burden on the states.

Elamin: I just want to clarify a couple of things you said there. "Jon Voight manifesto" — Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone are part of this council, let's say, that Donald Trump appointed ambassadors to Hollywood, to sort of figure out the problems that Hollywood is going through and how he can be a participant in that.

Kate, you're the president of an actors' union. Since this announcement came out, what kind of questions have you been getting from the members?

Kate: A lot of the questions are centered around how will it work, which is essentially this avocado piece, right? Like, are TV shows going to be exempt? Is it theatregoers that are going to be affected? What if something is a co-production? There's a lot of Canadian-American co-pros with Ireland, and Australia, and South Africa….

I think it showed such a fundamental lack of understanding coming out of the White House, or an unwillingness to express an understanding, if there is one. That really threw people who live inside this work into a state of chaos and confusion, and asking questions that I think they know that the answer is, they haven't worked any of that out. So those are a lot of the things that people wanna know: is it going to stop a production in its tracks, a film, a TV show? What's going to happen?

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jean Kim.