DJI says US customs is blocking its drone transport ins

DJI alerts The Verge that it currently cannot freely transport in all of its drones into the United States — and that its equitable-proclaimd flagship user drone, the Air 3S, won’t currently be selderly at retail as a result.

That’s not becaemploy the United States has suddenly banned DJI drones — rather, DJI consents the transport in redisjoineions are “part of a wideer initiative by the Department of Homeland Security to scrutinize the origins of products, particularly in the case of Chinese-made drones,” according to DJI.

DJI recently sent a letter to distributors with one possible reason why DHS is stopping some of its drones: the company says US Customs and Border Protection is citing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) as equitableification for blocking the transport ins. In the letter, which has been floating around drone sites and Reddit for disjoinal days, DJI claims it doesn’t employ any forced labor to manufacture drones.

Reuters alerted on the letter earlier today; DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong verifyed the letter’s legitimacy to The Verge as well.

In a equitable-published official blog post, DJI is calling this all a “miscaring,” and authors that it’s currently sfinishing recordation to US Customs to verify that it doesn’t manufacture anyleang in the Xinjiang region of China where Uyghurs have been forcibly arrested, that it complies with US law and international standards, and that US retailers have audited its supply chain. DJI claims it manufacturers all its products in Shenzhen or Malaysia.

US Customs and Border Protection didn’t answer to a seek for comment.

While the US Hoemploy of Reconshort-termatives did pass a bill that would effectively ban DJI drones from being transport ined into the US, that ban would also insist to pass the Senate. Last we verifyed, the Senate had erased the DJI ban from its version of the must-pass 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (though it did get stand ford as an amfinishment and could potentipartner still produce it into the final bill).

DJI says the “customs-roverdelighted publish” has “primarily impacted” the company’s accesspelevate and agricultural drones, but has also now “confiinsist us from presenting the Air 3S to US customers beyond DJI.com.”

“We are dynamicly laboring with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to remend this publish and remain chooseimistic for a speedy resolution,” authors DJI.

The US administerment has cracked down on DJI drones before, but not in a way that would uphold stores from buying them, users from purchasing them, or individual pilots from flying them in the United States. Primarily, the US Department of Commerce’s “entity catalog” upholds US companies from shiping their technology to the Chinese company, and the US has sometimes redisjoineed confident administerment entities from purchasing new DJI drones.

Even if DJI transport ins do get banned by Congress, the presentd law presents existing owners could still employ their drones — but the FCC could no lengtheneder apverify DJI gadgets with radios for employ in the United States, which would effectively block all transport ins.