The White House appeared to backtrack after President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on movies filmed in foreign locations.
On Sunday, Trump revealed that he had ordered United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer "to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands."
"Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated," the president wrote. "This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat."
On Monday, however, a White House statement walked back Trump's declaration by saying that "no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made."
ALSO READ:'Pain. Grief. Anger': Families heartbroken as Trump backlash smashes adoption dreams
USA Today noted that the White House statement "added more confusion to an announcement that already was drawing questions about how the tariffs would be implemented."
"It was unclear if the tariffs would apply to movies on streaming services as well as those shown in theaters, or if they would be calculated based on production costs or box office revenue," the paper said. "The Motion Picture Association, which represents the major studios, had no comment."