SAG ENDORSES TARIFF ON RUNAWAY FILMS.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer

The Screen Actors Guild has upped the ante in its battle against runaway production, endorsing a petition that could result in tariffs being levied on domestic companies that accept foreign subsidies to make television shows and films outside the United States.

The guild's signing the petition goes against the stance taken by other powerful Hollywood labor organizations.

The petition's goal is getting the U.S. International Trade Commission and Commerce Department to evaluate the impact of Canadian incentive programs on the domestic film business. If they are deemed harmful, then countervailing tariffs could be imposed.

Those tariffs would require production companies that receive foreign subsidies to pay an equal amount for the right to distribute that product in the United States.

SAG's national board voted 49-28 in favor of signing the petition last week, officials said Tuesday.

The petition must be signed by half of the approximately 270,000 people working in the domestic entertainment field to trigger a federal review, so SAG's action is significant.

``Getting 100,000 (signatures) in one chunk like this is a significant boost to the promoters of the petition,'' said Lance Simmens, SAG's national director of government relations.

International Alliance of Theatrical State Employees had earlier rejected the tariff proposal.

The actors guild and other entertainment industry labor unions do support Senate Bill 1278, sponsored by Sen. Blanche Lambert Lincoln, D- Ark., that creates tax credits for companies that film domestically.

And the California Film Commission has an incentive program for companies that film in the state.

Canada also has a tax credit and rebate program that has proved to be a powerful incentive for American film and television companies.

Brent Swift, chairman of the Film and TV Action Committee, said the countervailing tariff would put the United States on equal footing with Canada.

``One reason we're fighting is for jobs. We cannot work in Canada and we cannot work here,'' he said, alluding to jobs that have headed north.

The industry has been struggling with the runaway production issue for several years.

It costs the domestic entertainment industry, which is concentrated in the Los Angeles area, 26,000 to 30,000 jobs annually and drains up to $15 billion from the economy.

Some industry officials, including those in Canada, think the issue is just SAG engaging in clapboard clapping.

Mark DesRochers, director of the British Columbia Film Commission, notes that Southern California's entertainment industry is a $28-billion-a-year business.

In British Columbia it is roughly a $400-million-a-year business and a $2.3-billion-a-year business across Canada, he said.

He also bristled at the constant harping by those in Hollywood that Canada is doling out subsidies.

``It's not guys standing at the boarder handing out $100 bills. It's based on applicable labor on productions shot in British Columbia or Canada,'' he said of his country's incentive package.

``We do a fraction of the amount of business that takes place in Hollywood and Hollywood will always be the center of the universe.''

SAG's Simmens agrees his group's vote is an attention-getter.

``We consider tariffs as a way of raising the visibility of the issue. It's a way of taking a very serious and thoughtful look at the practices that are being employed in Canada that are having the impact of poaching jobs away from the ... U.S.,'' he said.