House Select Committee Asks for Higher Tariffs on Chinese Drones

House Select Committee on China Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., asked Homeland Security Investigations to look into whether a surge in drone imports from Malaysia is due to transshipment from China, and asked the administration to hike tariffs on Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles, either by increasing Section 301 tariffs on the product, by initiating an antidumping/countervailing duty investigation, and/or opening a Section 232 investigation.

"The current 25% additional tariff imposed under Section 301 on [Chinese] UAV imports has proven insufficient to combat the surge in imports of [Chinese] drones while also raising concerns that [Chinese] manufacturers are avoiding U.S. Section 301 tariffs by transshipments through third countries," they said in their letter, published March 20. They said that U.S. buyers imported more than 565,000 drones from Malaysia in the first 11 months of 2023; before the Section 301 tariffs were imposed, there were 16,000 drones imported from China in 2017.

Drones subsidized by the government of China "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," according to the letter, which was also signed by 11 other members of Congress, most from the committee, but also including Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., a member of Republican leadership in the House.

They said the fact that many utility companies, law enforcement agencies and other government agencies use Chinese-made drones "creates risks that these platforms could be used to map and transmit sensitive U.S. infrastructure. Recent research found that DJI drones can transmit their GPS location, as well as the coordinates of their operators...." DJI is drone manufacturer Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies Ltd., which is on the Commerce Department's Entity List.