Hollywood’s trade representatives have added US Media & Entertainment companies to Trump’s arsenal as “Liberation Day” triggers a global trade war.
The U.S. President’s latest wave of tariffs, proclaimed on April 2nd as “Liberation Day”, has triggered alarm across the global Media & Entertainment industry. Cultural exports, such as books, news, films and television shows have long been exempt, and immune, from U.S. trade policy over sensitivities for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Until, that is, Hollywood trade representatives found an unlikely ally favouring the argument that any decline of U.S. legacy media companies is the fault of foreign adversaries taking advantage of the United States.
While its trade organisations may have seen opportunity in the Trump agenda, the practical implications on one of the world’s most resilient industries could find Hollywood losing its starring role and U.S. legacy media falling further behind.
Official Announcement
On April 2, President Trump formally declared a national emergency caused by foreign trade and economic policies targeting the United States. On what he calls, “Liberation Day”, the U.S. President invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Under this law, the Trump administration is authorised to impose sweeping new tariffs on all imports into the United States as a means to redress, “unfair tariff disparities and non-tariff barriers imposed by other countries.”
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American streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Apple+ and Disney+ have both lamented, and benefited from, an insistence by the EU that as much as 30% of digital content aimed at European audiences be produced in the EU. The terms, unfair and unfair to whom seem to be lost in the mix of commerce and politics.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA), a trade group representing U.S. studio distributors and streaming platforms has formally complained to the U.S. Trade Representative of foreign countries that unfairly restrict its American members commercially. According to the MPA, those unfair trade practices ultimately undermine Hollywood’s ability, “to produce new content, invest in the legal distribution of services, and to employ American workers.”
Another industry trade group representing Hollywood, the Directors Guild of America (DGA), together with IATSE, have also formally submitted guidance to the U.S. Trade Representative, including criticism of foreign local-content mandates, calling them non-reciprocal trade barriers. The DGA cites a 40% drop in U.S. television production since 2022
Such narrative has been music to the ears of the Trump administration.
“Liberation Day” comes just one month after President Trump’s official Memorandum entitled, “Defending American Companies and Innovators From Overseas Extortion and Unfair Fines and Penalties”. Section 1 of that memo specifically targets foreign regulations governing digital services that include requirements for, “American streaming services to fund local productions”.
If found to be doing so, President Trump stated that, “my Administration will act”.
One month later, he has.
Who’s Talking?
Even before the most recent tariff announcement, the threat of a trade war with the U.S. places a key international production pipeline at risk. Last month, CNBC reported on potential trade war implications on the critical “Hollywood North”; a production market in Canada that has for decades helped globalise Hollywood-standards in international film and television production.
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“Some fear that a trade war with Canada could cause the U.S.’ northern neighbor to retaliate in ways that would hurt film production,” CNBC reports. Escalation could result in Canada, “potentially rescinding those sought-after tax credits or closing stages to U.S. studios altogether.”
Some in Hollywood are concerned for other reasons, according to CNBC. “Now, even if studios are able to improve the cadence of theatrical releases, there is concern that moveigoers will not have the discretionary income to see new films and buy popcorn.”
The Hollywood Reporter reacted to “Liberation Day” with the title, “Trump Tariffs Timing Couldn’t Be Worse for Hollywood.”
The national emergency comes just ahead of upfront negotiations between television networks and advertisers, where billions in ad spend are committed and from which decisions on what shows to produce for next season are made.
“The media business might not be built on imported physical goods,” THR reports. “but many of its largest advertisers are”.
“It really is a perfect storm of bad news,” one media buyer told THR. Reallocated budgets and fragility in sectors like auto, travel and consumer goods are all contributing to a general decline in ad spend forecasts. Ad revenues will continue to grow, according to the article, just not for Hollywood.
Big brand advertisers are likely to divert advertising spend into more stable, foreign markets or focus on direct-to-consumer platforms being run outside the U.S. Inside the U.S., any growth in ad revenues, “will be coming from tech giants like Google and Meta.”
Screen Daily reports that Hollywood’s trade organisations have continued to support the Trump administration’s efforts with further submissions to the U.S. Trade Representative as recently as March 11.
“For many European execs,” Screen Daily reports, these submissions “highlight how the US film and TV industry has jumped on Trump’s trade war bandwagon.”
According to Screen Daily, “it seems only a matter of time before filmmakers worldwide are caught up in the trade war in some form.”
Both The Times of India and Deadline picked upon on the fact that Russia is one of the very few countries not included on President Trump’s target list.
Why It Matters
Behind the noise of tariffs and quotas lies a quieter but more profound narrative shift.
Hollywood’s trade groups are effectively seeking trade concessions that, in practice, would erode one of the greatest strengths behind Hollywood’s success. With more than half of U.S. M&E revenues coming from outside the U.S., global co-productions have proven to be lucrative. New, creative content together with collaboration on cost and efficiencies from production in Canada, the UK and the EU have provided windfall profits for U.S. media companies.
The new alignment between Hollywood and the Trump administration would seem to benefit only a small cadre of streaming platforms with direct connection to major studios.
For the tech-centric streaming platforms, alignment with the Trump administration may provide a number of short-term benefits. For the major “Studios”, which seem to have resigned themselves to decline and consolidation as audiences evolve away from them, the Trump agenda offers a chance to mis-direct attention away from their own failures in corporate leadership and industry vision.
It’s a strategic pivot: reframe the erosion of legacy media in the U.S. as a foreign problem, not a homegrown one.
But this tactic comes with risks.
Hollywood’s monopoly on global content is long gone. In fact, Hollywood’s own survival now hinges on the international partnerships that a global trade war puts at risk.
At stake is the very fabric of the global entertainment economy.
The confluence of economic, political and cultural friction may make it harder for U.S. studios to bet big on international collaboration at a time when global co-productions and international audience growth are seen as key to the industry’s long-term viability.
A strategic alignment between Hollywood and the Trump administration may backfire, prompting creative partners internationally, and audiences, to pick up what Hollywood is forsaking.
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