Posted on 06/30/2004 11:10:23 AM PDT by Republican Red
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. cinematographers and other film industry workers have asked the Bush administration to take action against Canadian, Australian and other government filmmaking subsidies that they say have lured away tens of thousands of jobs. "We have been harmed by runaway production of films, videos and television shows that are being made in foreign countries because of ... unfair trade practices," the Film and Television Action Committee said in comments filed this week with the Commerce Department's Unfair Trade Practices Task Force.
The Bush administration created the new task force as part of an initiative aimed at helping the U.S. manufacturing sector, which has lost nearly 3 million jobs since 2000. The panel is supposed to actively root out "unfair" foreign trade practices to keep jobs in the United States.
"We are asking that the Unfair Trade Practices Task Force address these (foreign film) subsidies as one of its first priorities," FTAC said. "The elaborate subsidy programs of Canada and other countries constitute extensive unfair trade practices that have damaged domestic interests in the amount of billions of dollars."
FTAC is supported by the Screen Actors Guild, various technical film workers unions and "tens of thousands of rank and file entertainment workers" according to its Web site. Unions representing cinematographers and other theatrical workers also asked separately for the Bush administration to crack down on "runaway" film production.
The groups charged the Canadian federal and provincial governments with offering a wide array of subsidies to encourage film and television production in Canada. They also accused Australia of offering "lavish" tax breaks and other incentives to entice movie production.
The success of those countries has encouraged many European countries, as well as Brazil, Iceland, New Zealand and South Africa, to offer similar incentives, FTAC said.
The Unfair Trade Practices Task Forces also heard from an assortment of other U.S. industries -- ranging from potatoes to steel -- demanding action. Many of those complaints were directed at China, which ran a record $124 billion trade surplus with the United States in 2003.
If I may be so bold as to advise the President, I would tell them to &^%$ off.
with the likes of Michael Moore?
physician heal thyself!
Outsource Hollywood
Maybe some enterprising documentary maker can chase around Moore and Eisner and ask them why they are shipping so many jobs to Canada. Call it Michael, Michael and Me.
Reference -- "Economic Sophisms" by Frederic Bastiat
Sick. Pinch me, I can't believe this tripe. Hollywood is destroying the national cinema in every country all over the world coming as it does with its violent pornography that bears only the marketing and dubbing or subtitling costs in each country so that the local producers are unable to compete with. That's one of the reasons Moore's propaganda gets awarded at Cannes. Artistic, ambitious cinema is dead, folks, replaced by your favourite Chuck Norris, Harry Potter garbage.
Quote Dick Cheney to them
LOL! Yeah, I'm sure this administration will get right on this one...
Good grief. Being a writer myself, I've done a fair amount of reading on this issue, and it's not at all difficult to understand why so many films are being made elsewhere, given the environment of making films in California, with its miles of regulations, the union control, etc.
And the very notion of Hollywood whining for help from Bush has got to set some kind of record for unmitigated gall.
MM
I've never heard of this group, have you?
On the one hand it is good not have LA in every single movie shot.
On the other hand, do we really want the french to become dominant in the culture wars?
Let them die on the leftist vine.
The jobs, that is.
Leftists=French=Liberals. I don't see the difference.
They would make speaking fench a constitutional provision.
A large furniture maker in my state announced this week that they are closing their doors and blamed cheap chinese imports. How the Hollyweird elites think their industry needs protection and the rest of the jobs don't? They're mostly big mouthed liberals anyway. Maybe if they were all jobless they'd understand reality a little better. Being broke might shut them up. I sure don't feel any sympathy for them.
I'll bet they drafted this letter at a Kerry fundraiser, after attending a book signing by clinton.
New Zealand will fall off the showbiz map because Helen Clark repealed the tax loophole that made NZ such a bargain. So that's one they don't have to worry about anymore.
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