France believes Trump’s movie tariffs will backfire

Culture Minister Rachida Dati said Wednesday she has nothing to fear from the U.S. president's threat to impose tariffs on movies produced abroad, and defended France's long-standing financial support to the film industry, News.Az reports citing Politico.

"In the end, the American film industry would be penalized the most, and obviously not ours," Dati said on Wednesday during a cocktail party at the culture ministry in Paris with actors, directors and producers of French movies selected for the Cannes film festival.

According to Dati, the United States has little to gain from a trade war in the movie sector as Hollywood successfully exports movies around the world.

"[Trump] would expose himself to, quote-unquote, 'retaliation'," she explained in an interview with France Inter earlier on Wednesday, downplaying the economic impact on France and noting that U.S. movies only account for 15 percent of total film shooting in the country.

In a social media post on Monday, Trump accused foreign countries of trying to lure U.S. productions by offering incentives and called it a "national security threat."

France has historically financially supported its cinema and cultural sector, also as a way to challenge U.S. hegemony.

"Our model has been under attack since its beginnings precisely because it is effective," Dati told the French movie industry figures gathered for the occasion.

"In France, we've never questioned our vision of cinema. A vision that considers it an art that must escape the pure laws of the market," she explained, noting that the U.S. "has always been hostile" to that concept.

Trump's tariffs threat promises to be one of the hot topics of discussion at Cannes, which kicks off next week. Of the 107 movies selected for the festival, French financial aid has gone to 43, of which 15 are foreign movies, according to the culture ministry.