Bipartisan Lawmakers Call on Biden Administration for Stricter Tariffs on Chinese Drones

A new DJI Mavic Zoom drone flies during a product launch event at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City on Aug. 23, 2018. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A group of bipartisan lawmakers have called on the Biden administration to take swift action on Chinese-made drones to protect the domestic drone market.

In a letter dated March 19 to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, the lawmakers raised concerns over the Chinese regime’s unfair trade actions that allow Chinese drone manufacturers to dominate the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) U.S. market as well as posing national security threats.

“PRC subsidized UAVs threaten U.S. national security by undermining the growth of the domestic U.S. drone industry needed to produce the unmanned aerial, surface, and underwater systems that are critical for our national defense,” they said, referring to the Chinese regime’s official name.

The group, led by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), called on the Department of Commerce to investigate the impact of importing drones from China, including those passing through third-party countries, on U.S. drone manufacturers. The lawmakers suggest that the current 25 percent tariff is inadequate to protect the domestic drone makers and propose a substantial tariff increase for these products to safeguard this crucial industry.

According to a whitepaper by the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, “China has used its monopolistic position to flood the U.S. with subsidized drones, distorting the marketplace in favor of Chinese drones, stifling competition, and inhibiting new entrants.”

As a result, the U.S. drone manufacturing industry has been hit significantly by Chinese drone dumping, losing almost all market share of this crucial industry to China. The whitepaper found that Chinese drones represented over 90 percent of the U.S. consumer market and 92 percent of the first responder market.

The lawmakers sounded the alarm that while China’s drone exports to the United States declined due to a 25 percent tariff, Malaysia’s drone exports to the United States surged significantly. The letter wrote that the number went from nearly zero in previous years to 242,000 units in 2022 and 565,000 drones in the first 11 months of 2023. Mr. Gallagher, citing Malaysia’s significant hike in U.S. drone exports, alleged that Chinese drone makers may take advantage of Malaysia to bypass U.S. law via transshipment.

In the letter, the group warned that the Chinese military could use data from Chinese drones used by various U.S. law enforcement and federal agencies to target critical U.S. infrastructure.

In January, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned U.S. owners and operators of critical infrastructure sectors not to use Chinese-made unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) due to security risks.

The lawmakers also urged the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Chinese drone manufacturers to determine whether these companies use third countries to evade U.S. tariffs.

Under Scrutiny

Chinese-made drones have been under scrutiny from Washington lawmakers as well as the administration. A series of legislation and measures targeting these drones have been introduced.

In 2019, Congress banned the Pentagon from buying or using drones and components manufactured in China.

In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) banned using its funds to buy Chinese drones as these devices are “subject to or vulnerable to extrajudicial direction from a foreign government.”

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 20 also advanced the Countering CCP Drones Act and Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency (FACT) Act to prohibit DJI technologies from operating on U.S. communication and telecommunication infrastructures. Mr. Gallagher and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) introduced these bills.

In November 2023, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers asked the Biden administration to investigate and potentially sanction another Chinese drone maker, Autel Robotics.

According to a 2023 China military report by the Pentagon, from March 2022 to 2023, Chinese companies exported over $12 million worth of drones and drone components to Russia. Russian forces use these Chinese-made drones for “targeting, surveillance, and strike missions in Ukraine.”