B.C. downplays Trump tariffs that could hit Vancouver film industry | Daily Hive

'More noise': B.C. downplays Trump tariffs that could impact Vancouver film industry

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US President Donald Trump has proposed some tariffs that could have a direct impact on the B.C. and Vancouver film industry, if implemented.

However, the B.C. government seems not to think much of it, considering it isn’t the first time Trump has threatened such tariffs.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that America’s movie-making business has been stolen by other countries, “just like stealing candy from a baby.”

“I will be imposing a 100 per cent tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump’s post added.

Ravi Kahlon, minister of jobs and economic growth, spoke about the Trump tariff at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

“No matter what threats come from south of the border, we’re focused on protecting B.C.’s motion picture industry and the more than 70,000 people it employs,” Kahlon said in a statement.

Kahlon said he was “sick and tired” of seeing posts from Trump, such as the one proposing the tariffs. The minister suggested this was “more noise” from Trump ahead of a review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

“We’ve heard this threat before without any action, and we don’t have any details from the White House,” Kahlon said.

Kahlon stated that if these claims were to come true, B.C. would be well-equipped to respond resiliently. He also said it’s a very difficult industry to put a tariff on.

In response, many industry experts and politicians have commented on the tariff threat on social media.

Andrew Kooman, a Canadian writer and producer, responded to the announcement on X. He said that these tariffs, if implemented, could cause headaches for major projects, including some being made in Vancouver, such as Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to The Social Network.

Lots of on-set headaches today. Here are current film and series productions in Canada. A few notables:

– Aaron Sorkin’s feature Goliath (Vancouver);
– next season of Eric Bana’s Untamed (throughout BC);
– CBS Studios’ Ivory Tower (Ontario)
– Interview with a Vampire… https://t.co/E8J1z3THL0

— Andrew Kooman (@akooman) September 29, 2025

As Kahlon suggested, this isn’t the first time Trump has proposed such a tariff. We wrote about a similar threat of tariffs proposed this spring. The minister said it was important not to jump to conclusions about the latest Trump threat.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim responded to the threat from earlier this year, saying that the Vancouver film industry wasn’t going anywhere.

Also, earlier this year, the B.C. government made it clear that USA productions were exempt from a push to cancel American contracts in the height of the trade war between the two nations.

So, at least for now, it seems that these proposed tariffs will be a wait-and-see situation.

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