The United States has already banned future foreign drones from entering the United States unless their companies kiss the ring — as well as routers, robots, and Roombas. Now, President Donald Trump is targeting existing drone imports and parts, too. He’s going to try to make them cost a lot more.
In a presidential action, he’s declared a whopping 100 percent tariff on imports of drones with thermal cameras, drones weighing over 25kg (57 pounds), and any kind of part for any kind of unmanned aircraft weighing over 25kg — you can read the full list here. For all other drones, including tiny sub-250-gram “Mini” consumer drones, he’s declared a 25 percent tariff.
In Trump fashion, these tariffs have a huge loophole: If a company commits to making some of their drones or aircraft parts in the United States, they don’t have to pay tariffs. Trump suggested he’d make similar deals when he threatened a 100 percent tariff on computer chips last year.
And Trump is giving the EU, Japan, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan a lower rate of 15 percent, and a rate of 10 percent for the UK, “provided that substantially all hardware, software, and technology originates from within these countries and the United States.”
Stated reasons for the new tariffs include:
“many U.S. commercial manufacturers that produce UAS domestically are highly dependent on foreign sources for critical UAS components, such as motors, electronic speed controllers, lithium-ion batteries, and docking stations, which creates unacceptable national security vulnerabilities.”
“products pose an information technology security risk because their software allows data to be sent back to the manufacturer in a foreign country.”
“there are concerns as to whether the U.S. industry can produce UAS and UAS components at the required speed and scale to adequately support national security operations and activities, including during a surge for wartime or armed conflict, or in a manner to sustain long-term economic competitiveness.”
Trump is also dangling a carrot, not just wielding a stick. The proclamation states that he’s authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to create a new program “to incentivize new investment in U.S. production facilities to produce UAS and UAS components.” That could be interesting, but last we checked, the government’s drone incentives were aimed toward drones for war.
The Supreme Court already ruled earlier this year that Trump’s global tariffs were illegal; the US Court of International Trade ruled against them too, though Trump continues to announce more.
As of today, it appears that Trump’s tariffs are enriching corporate America at the expense of everyday citizens. First, companies raise their prices so that you pay the cost of tariffs instead of them. Then, those companies get gigantic refunds from the government when the tariffs are declared illegal. Finally, they profit. Companies do not pass those refunds along to you, even though you paid for them, and they do not lower their prices either.
The tariffs aren’t the US government’s only attempt to target larger foreign drones in the US. The FCC recently threatened to retroactively ban “military-grade” drones using definitions that would also catch drones for farmers, first responders, and light shows in the same net.
