Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand and worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before travelling to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
The Los Angeles Times announces as a breaking story, “Looking to boost the production of Hollywood movies in the US, President Trump on Sunday announced a new 100 per cent tariff applied on films produced overseas. For more than two decades, major studios have shifted movie production to cheaper countries, including Canada, UK, Bulgaria, New Zealand, and Australia that offer generous tax benefits to build their local economies, luring films away from Hollywood”.
NZ politicians, being out of touch with the speed with which things move in Washington these days, told us that our exports into the US would be tariffed at a 10 per cent rate. That appears to have all changed as of a few hours ago – with specific goods and services now being targeted, including NZ’s heavily subsidized movie industry. National better get with the picture.
Just one month ago, Finance Minister Willis confirmed her government would continue with the Film Sector Production Tax rebate. Between 2014 and 2022, $1.15bn was spent on it. (Willis lives in Wellington, so pouring limitless subsidies into Wellington is good with her). Ironically the Post reported last month Willis “celebrated the release of the latest locally made blockbuster, A Minecraft Movie”.
Seems she celebrated too hard. Maybe Trump read about Willis’ bragging rights, which is why he announced, “Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the US ... Hollywood and other areas within the USA are being devastated.”
National should immediately end all screen rebates, since no studio will likely want to produce in NZ when it can’t sell its movies back into America. Let’s see what Titanic director James Cameron and Peter Jackson say from their (subsidized) Wairarapa bases.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
