Group proposes tit-for-tat to stop runaway productions

The Hollywood-based Film and Television Action Committee is circulating a petition urging the U.S. government to impose tariffs on films that receive Canadian tax breaks. As reported July 8 by the Canadian Press wire service, members of the committee are demanding that the tax breaks be counterbalanced by tariffs on the films — for every dollar in Canadian subsidies that a film receives, an equal amount would be charged at the border in tariffs. Brent Swift, spokesman for the group, told the wire service: “More than half the people in the film business, which is about 270,000 people in the United States, will have signed or in some way attested to the fact that they’ve been hurt — extremely — by what has happened in the last three-and-a-half years since [Canadian] subsidies were installed.”