Washington, DC, May 5: US President Donald Trump has announced that he has directed the Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative to immediately start the process of imposing a 100 per cent tariff on all movies coming into the US that are produced in other nations.

He said that the movie industry in the US is "dying" a very fast death and added that other nations were offering incentives to draw the American filmmakers and studios away from the US and termed it a "national threat."

In a post shared on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump stated, "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. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN."

Trump's decision comes amid the ongoing tariff war between the US and China. On April 10, China announced that it has decided to "moderately reduce" the release of Hollywood films in the Chinese market. China's National Film Administration directly connected its decision to tariffs imposed by the US on Chinese products.

In a statement, China's National Film Administration said, "The wrong move by the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience's favourability towards American films," Al Jazeera reported.

It stated, "We will follow market rules, respect the audience's choice, and moderately reduce the number of American films imported."

Notably, China accepts 10 films a year from Hollywood, and the Chinese market was once considered a key source of revenue for the American film industry.

Reacting to China's decision, Trump had said that he was untroubled by China's National Film Administration's decision to target the film industry, Al Jazeera reported. In response to a question, Trump had said, "I think I've heard of worse things."

(ANI)

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