US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) opened new duty lines for drones on 3 September, capping the tariff at 10 per cent for British products and 15 per cent for products of Japan, the EU, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and Liechtenstein1. Other imports pay 100 per cent on Annex I items and 25 per cent on small drones. The caps apply only if importers certify that "substantially all the critical components and technology" come from the US or the same partners, under the Section 232 proclamation that set the tariffs2.
A European airframe with a Chinese motor or thermal camera therefore falls back to the full rate: 25 per cent for a small drone, and 100 per cent if it carries a thermal imager or weighs over 25kg. The Commerce Department has yet to publish how it will judge the certificates. Two zero-rate duty lines exist for importers with approved onshoring plans. The interim one, for plans with conditional approval from Homeland Security or the Department of War, closes on 9 February 2027, the day duties on the Annex III component list begin3. Beijing already requires a licence for US-bound exports of the same kinds of parts.
A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule published on 11 September closes the parts route from a second side4. It bars certification of any device containing a "logic-bearing hardware component" made by a company on the FCC Covered List, the Commission's register of firms judged a national-security risk. Once the rule takes effect, due on 13 October, a US-assembled drone with a Chinese-made flight controller or radio will not win approval.
A separate FCC notice of 24 August asked whether to stop imports and sales of some foreign drones that already hold authorisation; comments closed on 23 September5. Autel, a Chinese drone maker on the Covered List, contested its own designation in a May filing to the FCC.
