It’s perfect: The British Film Institute has urged ministers to call for the UK’s film and TV business to be excluded from any trade deal signed with US President Donald Trump.
The BFI sent the British Foreign Office a policy document in May 2025 explaining why including the screen industry in any trade agreement would cause “significant harm.”
The reason for the BFI’s specific counter-message was that the film’s body feared it would prevent the UK from “discriminating in favour” of British companies through tax breaks and subsidy schemes in the future.
The BFI also believes that any screen industry deal with America could anger the European Union, which could retaliate by withdrawing UK content from the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
Broadcasters and broadcasters in EU countries have a duty to manage quotas of “European works” on their services. Under existing arrangements, UK films and TV shows qualify as European works despite Britain leaving the trading bloc in 2016.
If the EU punishes the UK, it could damage Britain’s most important film and TV market, the BFI says. The EU accounts for 51% of film exports, compared to the US export rate of 20%.
“Losing the UK’s eligibility for EU quotas therefore risks damaging the value of film and wider AV (audio) exports in our most important market,” said the BFI’s policy paper, entitled A Possible UK/US Trade Agreement: Why Audiovisual Services and Subsidies Must Be Excluded.
“The inclusion of AV in the IP chapter of any trade agreement should be limited to ensuring that other countries comply with the ‘high-level’ IP framework developed in the UK, rather than agreeing to any changes that would cause significant damage to the interests of individual creators and creative businesses.”
The dangers of AI
The BFI also warned how the trade deal could open the door to US AI companies undermining copyrighted material.
“It is also vital that the UK maintains its regulatory sovereignty and does not comply with US AI companies’ demands for a more ‘permissive’ copyright regime,” the document said. “This will put businesses and livelihoods at risk in all our creative industries.”
The “sensitive” document was revealed on Monday, when the government released more than 1,000 pages of documents about Lord Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US Mandelson was sacked last year over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
The Film and TV industry was not included in the economic agreement with the UK signed by Trump last year. At the time, Trump threatened to impose a 100% tax on film sales.
In an email containing a BFI briefing paper, a representative of the film association told Jon Garvie, former chief of staff to the Foreign Secretary, that Trump’s tariffs would be bad for British business.
“As you will be aware, any such move will have serious consequences for the UK film & HETV (high-end TV) sector given the very high proportion of inward US investment in our sector,” the BFI official said.
The BFI declined to comment further.
