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Hello and welcome to World Business Report.
On the BBC World Service, I'm Will Bain.
Thanks for being with us.
Why does President Trump want tariffs on where films get made?
It's something we'll be delving into in just a moment and looking at what the impact could be for those in the creative industries right round the world as a result.
Also today why Ghana is kicking out foreign traders on its gold markets.
We'll hear from the country's recently installed gold mining regulator on the programme.
And does this sound familiar how the cost of childcare continues to create major headaches for millions of workers?
people when I found out I had twins their first reaction was oh, you're going to quit your job, right, but were a Household that relies on to income.
Yeah, all that to come before we leave you today here on world business report We're gonna start though by talking movies our people born wicked Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?
I never forgot it. But a slave could take revenge against an emperor.
This Wolverine let down his entire world.
Three films that wicked gladiator two and Deadpool Wolverine three films with something in common made by US production companies.
but importantly, today and given the context of the story, filmed outside or predominantly so the United States mainly in the UK, Canada, and Morocco in those three case that's significant because what potentially could mean you guessed it, tariffs.
President Trump said he was authorizing the US Department of Commerce and Trade representative to start the process to impose 100 % tariffs on foreign made films, because the President said America's movie industry was dying a very fast death he blamed what he called a concerted effort by other countries that offer incentives to attract filmmakers and studios uh which he described as a national security threat in all caps as is his way these days on his truth social social media site the president declared we want movies made in america again eric deggans a tv and film critic for npr radio in the us
States, says the plan could backfire.
If you look at the top money making films in Hollywood from last year, Inside Out 2, 61 % of its revenue came from overseas.
Deadpool versus Wolverine, 52 % of that revenue came from overseas.
So if the president creates a situation where there are retaliatory tariffs, and it is harder for these films to make profits overseas.
It may create a situation where where the terrorists in America are causing more harm than good.
Well, North America business reporter Aaron Delmore is with us from New York Aaron always great to have you on the program.
Hey, well, lots of tariffs twists and turns this year for you and your job.
Did you think the movie industry was likely to be on your list of things have to muck up mug up on on on how terrorists would work?
You know, Hollywood was not on my bingo card this week.
But perhaps it should have been you know, President Trump is pretty good at forecasting what he has his eye on.
But there is always a question of what has his attention at any particular moment.
You know, in this instance, there was a little drip, drip, drip of reporting last week that President Trump was set to meet with Jon Voight, who's one of the actors who President Trump tasked with revitalizing Hollywood bringing him a plan on how to do something like this bring moviemaking back to America.
And so that is I think where we can point to the attention generation here.
Yeah. So what do we know so far?
Because it looks like as as often with some of these first bits of tariff announcements we know the headline but not tons else on how this is going to work exactly we know the intention but we don't know how it's going to be fleshed out so what we know is that president trump has taken to social media saying that he wants to see these movies made in the usa again like you said in your intro will he's really tying this to a national security objective he's talking about jobs made in the us revenue generated in the us and we do see it falling under a lens that he's used before on tariffs that he
thinks other countries are taking what he thinks should be the USA's.
Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary, has said on social media, we're on it, but there are some questions here about what exactly even qualifies as being targeted with a tariff.
I mean, Will, you and I have talked about this for years now, but is a movie something that scores big in the box office?
Is it something that we watch in a movie theater?
Is it something that we stream at home?
Could you base a tariff on the production cost of it or how much revenue it's generated and in what way?
I mean, certainly, especially when we see some of the major movie making platforms here being Internet companies, tech giants that have made their way into the movie industry via TV.
Those lines are blurred, and that's something that people have to really sit down with and put some real pen to paper and some numbers on.
But look, speaking of numbers, yeah, go right ahead, Will.
Oh, sorry, I was going to say, similarly, Erin, just in terms of what you've talked about with all these Sarah's full stop as well.
Well, and perhaps you were just about to come to this, sorry, but there's the provenance, the rules of origin, I suppose, is the jargon term, isn't it, of where different bits are made?
In a globalized world, as we've talked about with the car industry, parts going over many borders many times, that's true too in creative industries, as well.
You've got talent all over the world and people doing different bits of a film all around the world.
Yeah. Like you say, it's part of an interconnected, globalized economy.
Okay, for many different reasons, people making movies might find it attractive to be overseas.
Maybe it's the location, maybe it's the talent, maybe it's the costs.
But at its core, President Trump is looking to take another bite back out of what's estimated to be a $248 billion industry in 2025.
And let's give you the global backdrop here.
I mean, other countries have found ways to lure production studios into their own backyard, right?
They can offer tax incentives.
They can offer cash back, or rebates, or tax credits.
And we've seen that really take off in a lot of other countries.
Now, there is definitely a toll that's being taken on Hollywood, on Los Angeles as moviemaking has moved abroad.
There's a number here that this is attributed to Otis College.
They found 25 % fewer jobs in film and TV than we saw just in the year 2022.
two. And now, according to Film LA, that's a non -profit, the film production in LA fell by around 40 % over the last decade.
And Will, if we want to put that into context, you know, we saw a lot of this slow down during and after COVID.
The industry took a big hit and we also saw the actors strike there as well.
There's been a lot of stops and starts to movie production here.
And, you know, it's an industry that is really hungering for some of this attention that President Trump is now lavishing on it.
as always fascinating backdrop.
Also fascinating. How many questions remain on there, Aaron, thanks for answering what you could there on that Erin Delmore that are a US North America business correspondent.
Well, one of those countries that Aaron mentioned really referenced about countries around the world trying to incentivize production to come and move there is of course here in the UK and resistant one works in the industry here in the UK right across it.
In fact, whether it's a production firm, pixel ahid pictures or is Mr. helix limited, a firm that focuses more on the test technical aspects of production.
Rizwan has worked on films like Star Wars rogue one, the Oscar winning film, the favourite and the BBC TV drama the hit Wolf Hall.
Rizwan, welcome to World Business Report.
Thanks for being with us.
Hi, well, thank you for having me.
And we've certainly made a big effort here in the UK haven't we to attract production companies production of films, everybody in industry to come here and invest here in the past what 10 years or so?
Yeah, we've had studios being built and investment into the infrastructure.
I'd like to reiterate one of the things that Aaron mentioned is that the concern that Donald Trump and the colleagues in the US have regarding the steep decline in productions after COVID and the strikes, you know, we've had those same issues, we felt the same struggle, you know, it's not been roses over here.
So we've all been struggling.
So it's not just the US that's struggling at the moment, but there were silver linings.
And we thought that productions are going to start kicking off again, and the dust is settling.
This has just come along.
And 100 % tariffs are just like for some production companies, studios and producers.
It's almost like another 100 % risk added to the on the table, which is going to be a cause for concern.
I know this is sort of brand new.
And as we were just saying, we're there and all the the details aren't there yet but if you were ready for the work you do or colleagues or people you know in the industry, what what would it mean, do you think practically?
Yeah, if I was a producer, and I've got a production company in the US and I've got studios in the UK, I mean, you've got Warner Brothers here, they've had smash hits like Barbie, you've had you know, several other hits as well.
You've got Pinewood Studios here, Pinewood Studios in the US, you've got production companies that are making a lot of productions across the pond.
And so if I was a producer, if I was a studio and this is happening yet, this would immediately may freeze something or maybe it'll make things uncertain.
So we'll be looking at it and thinking what we would need some clarification on this and find some way to ensure that this is going to be more beneficial for the industry as a wider industry.
And look at it from a global perspective rather than just looking at it internally.
Because it is the global industry, we all work together.
Whether it's the US and the UK supporting each other and the way that we do with our crew with our technologies without knowledge transfer, all of these things.
But yeah, it means that further potential delays, I hope that's not the case.
Because if that has a chilling effect on on investment potentially, as well as we've heard with other sectors.
Yeah, well, I mean, look, you know, they told us to hold like from a crew perspective, and companies hold till 2024.
After you know, AI is coming in, and AI is now going to be accepted in the Academy Awards, films that are made with AI, which is interesting that we've had Technicolour go down this year with the VFX side of things.
Things are changing.
There's going to be new investment, there's silver linings.
I don't want to paint a picture that's all gloom.
It's just a very difficult period for a lot of companies and a lot of the freelance community in the country.
Even studios that are starting to gear up.
There's already been cuts on TV dramas.
and so there's, you know, there's an industry where dust hasn't settled and we've just had more fuel to the fire, you know, I mean, there's another perspective of individuals that I've known that are lifetime, you know, veterans in the industry, yeah thinking of kind of retraining and leaving and it's really sad because they've spent all their lives in the industry and it's like really just, you know, not disheartening for them.
Yeah, as we were saying, yes, more questions ahead on that.
I'm sure we'll get you back on to answer plenty of them, Rizwan great as always, to have your insight Rizwan, why on their work right across the UK creative industry session section should say the UK Government have been in touch this afternoon with the response to this the film sector is a key part of the UK is world class creative industries, they say which employs millions of people generates billions and a culture to the world.
They say they're going to take a calm and steady approach to talks with the US to resolve this.
Something I'm sure we will talk about plenty more here on the program.
Let's turn though now to something that broke over the weekend, but we thought it's the first chance you've heard got to hear on our flagship business programme.
The decision by the billionaire investor Warren Buffett to step down as a chief executive of his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway big surprise because the 94 year old previously said he didn't plan to retire.
So how's it become so successful and who might come next?
Ollie Dal Colton has been taking a look.
Legendary investor Warren Buffett waited until the final minute of his 60th shareholder meeting to announce his plans to retire.
a shocking investment.
Warren Buffett is one of the world's richest people with a net worth of approximately $160bn.
Known as the Oracle of Omaha, where he was born and lived his entire life, he's arguably the world's best investor.
But this weekend, aged 94, he decided it was time to announce his retirement from Berkshire Hathaway, the company he's run for over 60 years.
The enthusiasm shown by that response could be interpreted in two ways, but I'll take a surprise.
Warren Buffett first bought shares in Berkshire Hathaway, then a textile company back in 1962.
Three years later, he formally took control of the whole business, transforming it into a conglomerate holding company, buying companies and stocks and shares for what he sees as hugely undervalued prices.
Today, Berkshire Hathaway is worth over $1 trillion.
So to some of his success stories.
Apple's largest holding.
iPod, a thousand songs in your pocket.
In total he bought 31 billion dollars worth of the stock.
The value of this climbed to 174 billion dollars before he started selling it.
He also bought some other giants.
That's the benefit of responsibility.
Apply online or visit a Bank of America near you.
The shares of Bank of America and Coca Cola being two great examples.
He purchased them when the companies were out of favour, and collectively, the shares are now worth over $100 billion more than what he paid for them.
And one of his most recent best performing stocks.
Getting ahead of the curve, as he always does, with Chinese electric car -maker BYD.
In 2008, he invested $232 million in the car company.
The value of that stake soared to more than $9 billion.
So how has he done it?
Act decisively, be patient, and don't rush it.
You can't produce a baby in one month by getting 9 women pregnant.
It doesn't work that way.
In 2011 he was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then President Barack Obama for his work and philanthropy.
When we were awarded to Warren Buffett, it says we'd all like to be so humble and wise and maybe make a little money along the way, his pledge to donate 99 % of his wealth just this weekend he reiterated the point that Donald Trump's tariffs were not good for anyone trade can be an act of war trade should not be a weapon I don't think it's right and I don't think it's wise from 1964 to 2024 he returned five and a half million percent gains.
He might be moving aside, but he's not going quietly.
Ollie there, taking a look at some of Warren Buffett's hits as the boss of Berkshire Hathaway or Deanna Gooder is with us.
Deanna, Investment Financial Advisor at Brighton Securities in New York City.
Deanna, thanks for being back with us on World Business Report.
Thanks for having me.
Great to be here. The legacy then of Warren Buffett.
And I guess the job ahead for his sort handpicked success in out box a half the way Greg able yeah yeah you know this is really a bittersweet end of an era you know Warren Buffett had a cult following so many investors would ask what would Warren do and I think this transition is especially scary for investors now because of all the macro uncertainty that we're facing you know right now we're watching the Berkshire Hathaway shares down about 5 % but we have to remember folks he's 94 years old we're He's trusting his process, he's passing the baton, there's a lot to be said for the solid company he
has built. What's your sense of what made him a good stock picker as someone working in that world?
Well what did he always say?
You know he looked at the bottom line, he looked at the financials but he also wasn't afraid during market downturns and he held on.
And there's a lot to be said for that.
A lot that people could take into the market right now all around the world as well when their professional analysts like you or people worried about their pension too.
Let's turn to the market itself Deanna as well.
Oil prices we've been talking about this a bit on the programme've been tracking down haven't they?
But now OPEC plus the kind of major production group talking about increasing supply and that means obviously price is down again if people remember their school economics.
Exactly. Price is down and fear is up.
That's what we're seeing right now fears of the market being oversupplied.
We have a couple factors.
President Trump although and he is scheduled to travel to the middle east this month called on OPEC to bolster production in order to bring the energy prices down.
But then you know we have sources saying that Saudi Arabia is looking to punish people for producing too much like Kazakhstan and Iraq.
So what we're seeing is these policy pivots are really causing a lot of sell -off and it's so far the worst performing major commodity in 2025.
Yeah tells us a lot about the impact of tariffs already doesn't it?
or big companies use big industry uses oil and if the oil price goes down tells us what the demand is for it to finish off our school economics lecture here on a Monday.
Deanna, always great to have you on the programme.
Deanna got to that investment financial advisor at Brighton Securities in New York.
You're with well Business Report on the BBC World Service.
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Asking the right questions can greatly impact your future, especially when it comes to your finances.
So if you're looking for a financial advisor you can trust, certified financial planner professionals are committed to acting in your best interest. That's why it's got to be a CFP.
Find your CFP professional at letsmakeaplan .org.
We're going to take you to West Africa now because the government of Ghana has announced it's banning all foreigners from trading in its local gold market so sticking with commodities as part of efforts there to boost national revenue and try and streamline the country's mining sector.
For more on the wise, we spoke to the spokesperson for Ghana's newly established gold mining regulator, it's called Goldbod, and Prince Kwame Minka is the spokesperson.
There are two major things for which culminated into this major change or major shift as far as goal trading in Ghana is concerned.
Number one has got to do with the smuggling of gold.
This has become a conquer that has it has become empirical that we curb it and by streamlining activities within the goal trading market in Ghana, we will be able to track this particular menace and be able to deal with it.
If we're unable to root it out entirely, at least we would have made an attempt to deal with gold smuggling which was not really helping our country.
Then the foreigners that were taking on due advantage of the gold trading sector in Ghana had also become a problem that needed to be fixed.
With the current objectives and functions and framework of Gold Board, we'll be able to detect that.
you say some kind of the important word isn't there clearly some bad actors in the example you give as well people I mean basically behaving illegally if they've not got permits or or rights to work there as well why then keep out potentially big multinational firms who are paying by the rules you know paying for permits having the right dealing with the government going about things well who would say well aren't we job creators here aren't we the people investing.
Well, it's a work in progress, and I can tell you the fact that nine large scale mining companies have already signed an agreement with the gold board, indicating that they are going to be supporting gold boards activity with 20 % of the gold that they produce in Ghana.
So the ultimate goal of gold board is to be able to streamline gold trading activities in a country, and that is not to say that we've taken out the large or multinational companies out, but we are focusing on the small -scale miners because one of the reasons for the growth of Ghana's economy to somewhere around 5, the original 5 % was as a result of the increased activities of small -scale miners in the country last year, and it culminated into revenue, and Ghana would want to take advantage of those revenue and eventually also ensure that the gold that are exported to other countries becomes the forex that we
need, in ensuring that we have a strength for our Ghana cities.
So to be really clear, foreign companies can work but they've just got to work with the gold -baud authority, there's going to be, sort of, routes for international mining companies and international traders to work still in Ghana, just they need to with you guys?
Absolutely and for any foreigner who would want to go into local gold trading, the foreigner has the advantage of off taking gold directly from the gold box.
So a letter of intent is written and then we move on as such. It doesn't necessarily, I mean I can see all the steps and understand it but again for the legal players they were probably already working with government bodies like yourselves weren't they?
The difficulty is going to be policing the illegal Have you got the sort of fire power if you like as an organisation, the people and the money to do that policing, to root out the poor behaviour, and the people who are clearly going to try and circumvent this system still?
And it's all written black and white in the law.
I mean for instance the law makes provision for gold inspectors or task force.
So these gold production force will become our men on the ground that will be able to pick up intelligence, and that will help us in nipping some of these situations in the bud.
Now we've had small -scale miners association, various associations promising gold -bought that they were going to help us in that regard, in terms of giving us the necessary intel that will be able to help us deal with such situations.
World Finance. A big job, but I guess from what you're saying, you think it could have a big impact on the country's economy?
I mean, the ultimate goal is ensuring that the goal that gets out of our country culminates into the need of dollars that would become the basis of throwing up our forex. Prince Kwame Mink there.
Now the cost of childcare in the United States seems to be one of the rare topics where politicians of all colours agree something urgent needs to be done, as Monica Miller has been finding out.
It's dinner time at the Harrison's house in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Allison and her husband had three baby high chairs lined up in a row for their one -year -old triplet daughters.
She's a primary school teacher at a government -funded school and wasn't given much time off before the girls were born.
I worked up until the Wednesday, and I had the girl's Friday.
I was not able to take leave before I would have had to take my sick time.
So, that was a lot." Unlike most countries, the US does not have universal health care or paid parental coverage.
There's the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows 12 weeks off, unpaid, after the birth of a child or an adoption.
But some states like California and New York have gone further and put into effect mandatory paid parental leave programs. and some companies also offer their own programs for new parents.
Dada? Yeah? Are you gonna show them?
No, are you gonna say Dada?
A few towns away is Sydney Greckler.
She has a four and a half year old daughter and eight month old twin girls.
Her job in the pharmaceutical industry is hybrid, so she works from home a few days a week.
We knew we didn't really want to send them to daycare when they were really little.
We're really lucky that we had the amount of leave that we do.
Both she and her husband's employers offered parental leave, which helped when the babies were young.
They considered putting them in full -day childcare, but it would have cost roughly $4 ,000 per month, a large chunk of their income.
We have good jobs, and it's a lot of money.
The Bank of America has found that the average family's childcare costs more than a third greater than 2019.
That's due to inflation and reduced childcare help during the Covid pandemic.
Given that the responsibilities traditionally fall disproportionately on mothers, many of them are torn between spending a large portion of their salary on care, cutting back their hours or quitting their jobs.
People, when I found out I had twins, their first reaction was, oh, you're going to quit your job, right?
I like to work, number one, I really like my job but I also were a household that I think relies on two incomes.
Since the pandemic American families pay more than their rent for full -time care of a child under the age of five.
You need a lot of adult humans who are well trained and well compensated to care for smaller humans.
Elliott Haspel is a senior fellow at the family policy lab at the think tank Capita.
He says labor costs take up a huge amount of child care program budgets.
Different in the U .S. than most other countries is there is very little public subsidy, very little public funding that comes in to defray those costs.
The U .S. spends roughly 0 .3 percent of its GDP on childcare in pre -kindergarten.
That's compared to the average 0 .7 percent of other industrialized nations and 1 .9 percent in Iceland and Sweden.
But some child care advocates in the USA, there are signs of bipartisan support to offer some financial relief to families.
Once we get out of those headlines, you get on the ground and you're in communities.
And actually, when you're in the halls of Congress, there are really good glimmers of hope with people working together and trying to solve some problems. Sarah Ritling from the First Five Years Fund says bills have been introduced that would offer tax credits to lower the cost for families, businesses and child care workers.
The US also offers a tax credit to offset daily household expenses for parents and a block grant program to help low income families.
In the prior Trump administration, we saw one of the biggest increases to that program.
Sarah Rittling there, ending that report by Monica Miller.
And if you want to hear a bit more about that, pretty universal, isn't it?
The cost of child care.
Business Daily podcast, a place for that.
Remember our podcast, if you miss an episode too, just search for World Business Report.
Asking the right questions can greatly impact your future, especially when it comes to your finances.
So if you're looking for a financial advisor you can trust, certified financial planner professionals are committed to acting in your best interests.
That's why it's gotta be a CFP.
Find your CFP professional at letsmakeaplan .org.
