The Posted: Wed., Mar. 22, 2006, 8:32pm PT

Glendale investigating runaway prod'n
City Council voted to back org's campaign
By DAVE MCNARY


The city of Glendale has endorsed an investigation into the legality of foreign government film and TV subsidies designed to attract American productions.

The Glendale City Council voted Tuesday night to back the campaign by the seven-year-old Film & Television Action Committee, an org of below-the-line workers.

Move came five months after the Screen Actors Guild national board voted unanimously to endorse such FTAC's efforts, along with contributing $10,000 to a report on runaway production by the Center for Entertainment Industry Data & Research.

FTAC has spent most of its energy on prepping a North American Free Trade Agreement Section 301(a) petition asking the U.S. trade representative to initiate negotiations with Canada to remove its subsidies, backed by the threat of intervention of the World Trade Organization, as the most effective way of putting the brakes on productions fleeing to less-expensive locations outside the U.S.

Orgs such as the Motion Picture Assn. of America, the American Film Marketing Assn., Directors Guild of America, Intl. Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and American Federation of Television & Radio Artists have long contended that such a strategy could backfire by leading to a trade war and further loss of jobs.


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http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&a=VR1117940230&c=1279