A thermal camera is now the difference between a 25 percent tariff and a 100 percent one on the same small drone

The same six tariff lines appear twice in this proclamation, in two different annexes, at rates four times apart.

Proclamation 11055 was signed on August 13 and put on public inspection at 11:15 on Tuesday morning, five days later. It publishes on Wednesday. It imposes tariffs on unmanned aircraft and their parts under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the national security provision, and the first rates take effect at 12:01 on September 3.

The thermal imager is the switch

Six subheadings cover small drones, the ones weighing 25 kilograms or less, split by whether they fly under remote control or without it. Every one of the six sits in Annex I and again in Annex II. In Annex I they are marked with a scope limitation the annex note defines as covering only unmanned aircraft with thermal imaging, and the Annex I rate is 100 percent. Annex II lists the identical six and says its 25 percent rate applies when the aircraft do not have thermal imaging.

So the camera decides the rate.

Above 25 kilograms the question does not arise. Those four subheadings appear only in Annex I, at 100 percent, alongside two component lines that the tariff schedule note in Annex IV identifies as docking stations and their parts.

Parts wait until February

Twelve subheadings covering propellers, rotors, undercarriages and other aircraft parts carry 100 percent from September 3, but only where the part is for a drone heavier than 25 kilograms, and not where it is for retail delivery, for agriculture, or for sale to the Department of War. The same twelve lines then take a 25 percent duty on February 9, 2027, for everything else. The proclamation says the delay is there to encourage onshoring.

February 9 is also the day an exemption ends. Companies on the Department of War Blue UAS Cleared List, on the Blue UAS Framework, or on the Federal Communications Commission conditional approval list as of September 2 get that later date instead of September 3. On the same date, the new tariff heading that lets companies with an onshoring plan approved by Homeland Security or by the Department of War import without paying is terminated and deleted from the schedule. The parallel heading for plans approved by the Commerce Secretary survives, under a process that does not exist yet and is to be set out in a future notice.

Allies are capped, if importers can prove it

Products of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and European Union members are capped at 15 percent including the ordinary duty. British product is capped at 10 percent. The condition is that substantially all the critical components and technology are certified by the importer as products of that group or of the United States, and the proclamation leaves the Commerce Secretary to build the test and to tell Customs which products pass it.

Two other provisions bite immediately. Drawback is cut back to manufacturing drawback only, and then only for goods that are not of a type covered by an antidumping or countervailing order, that come from a listed trade agreement partner, and that are at least 85 percent partner content. Covered goods entering a foreign trade zone from September 3 must be admitted as privileged foreign status, which fixes the classification and rate at admission rather than at withdrawal.

The Commerce report underneath all of this is not public. The proclamation summarises the findings, states that the Secretary transmitted his report within the past 90 days, and gives no import figures at all.