Donald Trump signed, Thursday, August 13, a “proclamation” presidential election announcing customs duties of up to 100% on imports of drones and drone components. The American president justified this decision by the protection of the national security of the United States, in this text published by the White House, while the drone industry is dominated by China.
A 100% tax must apply for drones whose take-off weight exceeds 25 kilograms, for those equipped with thermal cameras, for drone docking stations and for certain components. A 25% customs duty is planned for smaller drones.
This means that are “especially aimed at industrial and commercial drones” and less those intended for the general public, underlines to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Clayton Swope, specialist at the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The goal, according to Donald Trump, is to“encourage production” of drones in the United States and “reduce dependence” to foreign suppliers. Most of these new customs duties are due to come into force on September 3. American industry “has often not been cost competitive with drones manufactured abroad”explains Clayton Swope.
Products from the Chinese company DJI very popular
Chinese company DJI, founded in 2006, has secured more than two-thirds of the world’s drone markets in recent years, according to several studies. Its products are very popular all over the world, even to the front line between Ukraine and Russia.
He is “essential that America can produce its own drones without parts or even materials from China”underlines, to AFP, Joshua Steinman, a former official of the National Security Council of the White House, responsible for the security of supply chains.
In an official note from December 2025, the American government established the need to build drones and their components in the United States, which “would reduce the risk of direct attack and disruption by drones, unauthorized surveillance, exfiltration of sensitive data and other risks to the homeland. » This “national security resolution” also underlined that drones are, in a way “inherent”dual-use: most drones, even sold for civilian use, can be used in a military manner. The war in Ukraine has shown the crucial importance of these unmanned aircraft on today’s battlefields.
Following this December resolution, the US telecommunications regulator, the FCC, added drones and their components to a list that would prohibit their importation in the future, although for now, “Devices already authorized can continue to be used. »
Restrictions
Chinese leader DJI has been in the crosshairs of Washington for several years, which has accused it of having provided products for the surveillance of ethnic minorities in China, in particular the Uighurs.
Since 2022, the company has been on the American list of Chinese companies linked to its army, and which are therefore subject to restrictions in access to American technologies. DJI fought in 2024 against its presence on this list, ensuring that it was not “neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military. »
Because Washington fears that drones “have backdoors that allow remote spying”Clayton Swope specifies that a number of rules already limit the possibility for the federal government, and therefore the American army, to equip itself with foreign drones.
