A law passed by Congress in 1988 explicitly bars the president from being able to regulate the import and export of films, books and music — something TikTok recently brought up

Legal experts say Trump’s move to enact tariffs on films produced abroad may end up on the cutting-room floor.

This seems like a pretty major hole in the plot.

President Donald Trump’s announcement that he intends to place big tariffs on films that are produced abroad has one big problem: It is likely against the law.

That’s because Congress nearly 40 years ago passed a law explicitly barring the president from regulating in any way the import or export of things like movies, books and music.

The law was passed at the end of the Cold War, amending the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, to specifically remove things deemed “informational materials” from items the president could make subject to sanctions and tariffs.

Trump cited that act as giving him the authority to declare a national emergency under which he has imposed wide-ranging tariffs across the world. The language of the 1988 amendment, which is known as the Berman Amendment, is unambiguous, experts say

“The statute couldn’t be more plain,” said Anupam Chander, an expert in international trade and global regulations law at Georgetown University. “Congress in 1988 specifically said the president does not have the power to regulate this.”

In a message posted late Sunday on Truth Social, Trump said he had ordered the Commerce Department and the U.S. trade representative to 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. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat,” he wrote.

Trump’s announcement sent a ripple through Hollywood, sending major entertainment-studio stocks like Lionsgate Studio Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. and Paramount Global lower. Analysts at Benchmark Equity Research said such a tariff regime “would be a devastating attack on the U.S. entertainment industry.”

Those stocks, as well as that of Netflix Inc., were trading well above their intraday lows in afternoon trading Monday.

Production in Hollywood has been in decline for years, as productions have been drawn elsewhere by tax incentives and other financial benefits. 

The Motion Picture Association declined to comment directly on Trump’s tariff threat, but did note that Hollywood generates $22.6 billion in export revenue, with a trade surplus of $15.3 billion.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act was originally drawn up to empower the president to levy sanctions and was first used in response to the Iran hostage crisis. The Berman Amendment limited the powers granted the president, stating they “do not include the authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, the importation from any country, or the exportation to any country, whether commercial or otherwise, of publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, or other informational materials.”

Congress doubled down in 1994, strengthening and broadening the already clear language of the 1988 amendment. 

The issues raised by the Berman Amendment are not new for Trump. The prohibition came up during Trump’s first term, when he tried to ban the Chinese-owned social-media platform TikTok through an executive order.

Both TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Ltd., and a group of TikTok users sued to block the order on the basis of the prohibitions stated under the Berman Amendment. Judges in both suits ruled against the president, stating that the law made it clear he didn’t have the authority to institute such a ban.

The matter later was taken up by Congress, which drafted its own ban and included specific language very narrowly crafted for TikTok’s situation that allowed lawmakers to sidestep the Berman Amendment. The law passed with bipartisan support last year, but Trump has since made a 180-degree turn on the issue and moved to prevent the ban from taking effect.

Chander said that unless Trump intends to use a different law as the basis for a tariff on foreign-prodcued films, it would appear to be a nonstarter.

Matt Wood, the vice president of policy and general counsel for Free Press, a nonpartisan media and technology watchdog that opposes banning TikTok, said it could come down to whether the courts believe a tariff qualifies as “regulation.”

“This could become a somewhat narrow and granular read of the law,” he said. “There is likely very little precedent in the law to address this.”

On Monday, the White House appeared to backtrack on the issue of a tariff on films.

“Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump’s directive to safeguard our country’s national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai.