DJI says US customs is blocking its drone imports

DJI tells The Verge that it presently cannot freely import each of its drones into the United States — and that its latest user drone, the Air 3S, won’t presently beryllium sold astatine retail arsenic a result.

That’s not because the United States has abruptly banned DJI drones — rather, DJI believes the import restrictions are “part of a broader inaugural by the Department of Homeland Security to scrutinize the origins of products, peculiarly successful the lawsuit of Chinese-made drones,” according to DJI.

DJI precocious sent a letter to distributors with 1 imaginable crushed wherefore DHS is stopping immoderate of its drones: the institution says US Customs and Border Protection is citing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) arsenic justification for blocking the imports. In the letter, which has been floating astir drone sites and Reddit for respective days, DJI claims it doesn’t usage immoderate forced labour to manufacture drones.

Reuters reported connected the missive earlier today; DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong confirmed the letter’s legitimacy to The Verge arsenic well.

In a just-published authoritative blog post, DJI is calling this each a “misunderstanding,” and writes that it’s presently sending documentation to US Customs to beryllium that it doesn’t manufacture thing successful the Xinjiang portion of China wherever Uyghurs person been forcibly detained, that it complies with US instrumentality and planetary standards, and that US retailers person audited its proviso chain. DJI claims it manufacturers each its products successful Shenzhen oregon Malaysia.

US Customs and Border Protection didn’t reply to a petition for comment.

While the US House of Representatives did pass a bill that would efficaciously prohibition DJI drones from being imported into the US, that prohibition would besides request to walk the Senate. Last we checked, the Senate had removed the DJI prohibition from its mentation of the must-pass 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (though it did get reintroduced as an amendment and could perchance inactive marque it into the last bill).

DJI says the “customs-related issue” has “primarily impacted” the company’s endeavor and cultivation drones, but has besides present “limited america from offering the Air 3S to US customers beyond DJI.com.”

“We are actively moving with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to resoluteness this contented and stay hopeful for a swift resolution,” writes DJI.

The US authorities has cracked down connected DJI drones before, but not successful a mode that would support stores from buying them, consumers from purchasing them, oregon idiosyncratic pilots from flying them successful the United States. Primarily, the US Department of Commerce’s “entity list” keeps US companies from exporting their exertion to the Chinese company, and the US has sometimes restricted definite authorities entities from purchasing caller DJI drones.

Even if DJI imports bash get banned by Congress, the projected instrumentality suggests existing owners could inactive usage their drones — but the FCC could nary longer authorize DJI gadgets with radios for usage successful the United States, which would efficaciously artifact each imports.