Instead of slapping a 100% tariff on Hollywood films, Trump should be making consumers king of the movies — and a globalized economy

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Unhinged tariff mania continues, with U.S. President Donald Trump starring in his latest headline-grabbing blockbuster: a 100-per-cent tariff on Hollywood movies because “The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death.” The idea soon ran up against walls of impossibility. If scenes of a movie were filmed in Toronto or Warsaw, using Canadian and Polish crews, how would a foreign-production tariff be tabulated and who would pay?

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On the other hand, it’s the kind of idea that might fly in Canada, where foreign-made movies and television shows dominate the viewing habits of Canadians. A tariff on American movies, added to the cost of a theatre ticket or a Netflix viewing, could be used to cover the hundreds of millions in existing Canadian tax credits and government subsidies to U.S. companies that come to Canada to make movies and commercials. Hollywood has received millions in subsidies to shoot Spiderman scenes in British Columbia, which