Depending on how close you are to retirement, you have either been looking at stock market movements with horror or frantically shovelling spare cash into your portfolio to buy in the dip. This is all because of tariffs.
Unless you have been living in a hole for the past week, you know the current US administration is making highly aggressive moves around global trade, implementing tariffs aimed at, they say, levelling the playing field and removing unfair advantages others have had over the US when it comes to trade.
Countries have reacted, markets are spooked, and a trade war looms.
China, for obvious reasons, are being hit particularly hard and will be retaliating. One area where they are making noises about this retaliation is in the world of movies.
Outside of the US, China has become one of the most important markets for US movies. The sheer size of the potential audience brings big rewards, if they get it right.
Now China is reportedly considering a ban on all US movies in response to the U.S. President Donal Trump’s indication that China are going to have to swallow an additional 50% tariff.
If this goes through, Chinese good will be subject to a 104% in additional duties later this week.
China has denounced this, and according to a report at Bloomberg they are planning to completely ban all US movies from Chinese markets.
US movies accounted for around 4% of the Chinese total box office last year.
Jurassic World: Rebirth, Superman, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning all had releases planned for China this summer.