Netflix co-ceo lobbies trump to drop 100% foreign content tariff threat
Ted Sarandos flew to Washington with a single demand: kill the 100% tariff Donald Trump keeps threatening to slap on movies shot outside the United States. The Netflix co-CEO left with what he claims is a presidential maybe.
Sarandos pitches tax credits instead of trade war
The streaming boss told POLITICO he handed Trump a map of Georgia and New Jersey, states that have siphoned California shoots with rebates topping 30%. “Incentives work, tariffs don’t,” Sarandos said, betting that the mantra will stick in a White House obsessed with trade balance optics.
Trump floated the import duty in May on Truth Social, framing foreign sets as an “assault on Hollywood jobs.” The post rattled studios already balancing budgets between London’s 25% cash-back and Budapest’s 37%. No formal order followed, leaving the sector in a limo-full of lobbyists.
Netflix has the most skin in the game. The company’s 2025 content budget hovers near $20 billion, with roughly half earmarked for non-U.S. titles such as Squid Game and All Quiet on the Western Front. A tariff would force the platform either to eat the cost or raise subscription prices in an inflation-sensitive market.
Sarandos argues the levy would boomerang: sound-stage workers in Atlanta and Albuquerque depend on globally financed shows that rent local warehouses and hire local crews. “Penalize foreign production and you punish Atlanta carpenters,” he told the outlet.
The White House, for now, is listening. A senior administration official said no final decision has been made and that “all options remain on the table to rebuild domestic filmmaking.” Translation: the tariff threat lives, but Sarandos has at least delayed the guillotine.
Los Angeles crews aren’t celebrating yet. Permit applications for on-location shoots in L.A. County fell 18% last quarter, the third straight drop. Meanwhile, London’s Pinewood Studios is booked solid through 2026, cushioned by the U.K.’s generous tax relief.
Sarandos’ gambit is classic Netflix: use data as ammunition. The company’s internal models show that every dollar spent in Canada or Spain yields a 40% audience engagement uptick in those regions, a metric the co-CEO quietly shared with Trump aides. The message: global stories expand the pie, they don’t shrink it.
The next move belongs to Trump, who loves tariffs the way Netflix loves cliff-hangers. If he blinks, expect every studio to sprint back to rebate-friendly states waving Sarandos’ playbook. If he doesn’t, Netflix can still lean on its 260 million subscribers abroad; the tariff would hurt, but not kill, the beast it built binge by binge.