MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100% tariffs on foreign movies is a bit misguided, as it’s not foreign competition per se that is hurting the US, but rather its own film industry choosing to shoot movies abroad that is the problem, movie observer at Rossiya-24 television Ivan Kudryavtsev told TASS.

“The US market is already the most closed market in the world. Only a select few foreign movie makers make it there. As a rule, they get very little screen time. America feeds the whole world and its territory with its movies,” the expert said.

The US President is more concerned with American movie studios filming abroad, rather than movie imports, Kudryavtsev said. “A lot of the world’s countries, from Western to Eastern Europe, from Southeast Asia to Latin America, proactively entice Hollywood studios to film there and then refund a significant portion of the money spent in the form of so-called ‘rebates’,” he noted. Rebates mean a partial compensation of costs provided by the countries to Hollywood studios for shooting on their soil. “You film here, create jobs, make our territory attractive for other movie makers, show our locations to a global audience and increase profits for our tourist sector, and you get a rebate for that,” the movie observer explained.

This is exactly why many studios prefer filming overseas, spending huge funds outside the United States, Kudryavtsev said. “Trump wants to bring the movies back home, wants that money spent at home,” he noted. Trump could postpone or even cancel the tariffs if Hollywood shows some flexibility, he noted. “It is quite possible that Hollywood, making concessions to Trump in certain other matters, probably political, will get a postponement for this decision or a cancellation overall. However, Trump may well introduce such tariffs, prompting the companies to film at home,” the expert concluded.

Trump earlier announced the introduction of 100% tariffs on foreign movies.