Articles Posted in Trump Administration

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On August 13, 2026, the Administration took two significant and complementary actions reshaping the regulatory landscape for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to increase U.S. domestic production.

First, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published a final rule further easing export controls on certain UAVs and related hardware, technology and software under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This action substantially relaxes EAR controls on ordinary civilian and commercial drones, while retaining controls for military-designed systems, long-range missile-capable UAVs, drones incorporating sensitive equipment, and drones destined for prohibited end users or end uses. This will make it easier for U.S. UAVs to compete abroad and has the potential of lowering their costs to both the domestic and international markets by increasing sales opportunities.

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On August 13, 2026, the White House published a Proclamation imposing duties under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (“Section 232”) on imports of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their parts and components. Following the Commerce Department’s recommendation, the President unveiled a staggered system of tariffs to address the national security threat posed by U.S. reliance on foreign-sourced UAS, strengthen America’s UAS industry and supply chain, and bolster the domestic defense industrial base. The President further authorized the Secretary of Commerce to establish an onshoring incentive program for companies making new investments in manufacturing UAS and UAS components in the U.S. This action builds substantially on previous actions by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of War (DoW) regulating the use of foreign-produced UAS and UAS components in the United States (summarized here).

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In an April 2, 2026 Proclamation, the Trump administration made significant changes to the implementation of the existing tariffs on steel, copper, and aluminum products and derivative articles under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act (“Section 232”). Since June 2025, Section 232 duties on mixed metal and non-metal products have been calculated based on the value of the steel, aluminum or copper content within the article. This instruction to separate out metal versus non-metal content resulted in considerable confusion regarding the methodology to determine the price paid by the importer for steel or aluminum consistent with the principles of 19 U.S.C. 1401a.

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On March 11, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced the initiation of a series of Section 301 investigations under the Trade Act of 1974 into “structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors.” The investigations target the following countries: China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan and India. The Administration has identified these as countries that “appear to exhibit structural excess capacity in various manufacturing sectors, such as through large or persistent trade surpluses or underutilized or unused capacity.”

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On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6–3 decision (in Learning Resources v. Trump) holding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.

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On February 6, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public input on CFIUS Known Investor Program (KIP). The RFI signals Treasury’s intent to formalize and begin implementation of the KIP announced in May 2025.

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Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the launch of a “cross-agency” Trade Fraud Task Force “to bring robust enforcement against importers and other parties who seek to defraud the United States.” According to DOJ, the Task Force will “augment the existing coordination mechanisms” within DOJ and leverage expertise from DOJ’s Civil and Criminal Divisions and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “to aggressively pursue enforcement actions against any parties who seek to evade tariffs and other duties, as well as smugglers who seek to import prohibited goods into the American economy.”

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Two days before its scheduled effective date, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced the rescission of the Biden administration’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Diffusion Rule on May 13. The Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, issued as an interim final rule on January 15, 2025, established new requirements under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) for the export, reexport and in-country transfer of advanced computing integrated circuits (ICs). These requirements created new licensing and quota regimes for advanced AI chips, as well as a tiered framework for assessing export restrictions to diverse jurisdictions (discussed in our previous post here).

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On April 2, 2025, President Trump signed a sweeping Executive Order (EO) imposing tariffs designed to address what the Trump administration has characterized as persistent trade imbalances allegedly caused by unfair trade practices. Invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the Administration declared trade deficits a national emergency and is adopting tariffs based on its view of what would be required to drive the U.S. trade deficit in goods with each country to zero.

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Following President Trump’s February 1, 2025, announcement of a sweeping set of tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, citing immigration concerns and the flow of fentanyl, trade tensions have lurched unpredictably between escalation and temporary resolution. While negotiations between heads of state on February 3, 2025, led to a 30-day pause on both U.S. tariffs for Canada and Mexico and parallel retaliatory measures, the 10% tariff on imports from China took effect at 12:01 a.m. on February 4, 2025. 

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