Teamsters back Trump's film tariffs: Studios "must invest in American workers"
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Teamsters president Sean O'Brien speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15, 2024. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The Teamsters are backing President Trump's plan to impose tariffs on films produced in foreign markets.
Why it matters: The union represents about 20,000 people who work on motion pictures in the U.S.
Driving the news: "The Teamsters support tariffs as part of an aggressive agenda to bring motion picture and TV industry work back to the USA," the union said Tuesday in a social media post.
- "If studios want to benefit from American box offices, they must invest in American workers. It's time to create good film jobs by bringing production back to America."
Catch up quick: Teamsters president Sean O'Brien has been working with the Trump administration to advocate for film tariffs. He said on his podcast in May that he spoke with Trump's Hollywood ambassador, Jon Voight, about it.
- O'Brien assailed the motion picture industry's "big money Wall Street people" — singling out Amazon and Netflix in particular — for shooting films in foreign markets.
- "It's cheaper for them to take a crew of 100 to Ireland or to Toronto or overseas to shoot a movie," O'Brien said on the podcast. "Why are we not putting strict tariffs on those companies? Force them to shoot in the United States to keep American people working. So we've been working on that."
The big picture: Trump on Monday pledged to impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made movies he first promised back in May, saying the film business had been "stolen" from the U.S, Axios' Ben Berkowitz reported.
The intrigue: Following industry blowback to the tariff idea in the spring, much of the focus over U.S. film industry support had turned to tax incentives, which Voight had emphasized in his own plan to the White House, according to reports.
- Trump at the time said he intended to meet with the film industry before any decisions were made.
The latest: It's not clear from Trump's latest post when or how the tariff would be levied, and whether the burden would be on the producers, distributors or somewhere in between.
- While he said the tariff would apply to "any and all movies that are made outside of the United States," it's not clear how much work on a film would deem it to be foreign made.
Flashback: O'Brien spoke last summer at the Republican National Convention, where he advocated for labor unions and said Trump had "proven to be one tough SOB."
- Weeks later, the Teamsters declined to endorse Kamala Harris for president after several straight elections of backing Democrats for the White House.
