[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 134 (Wednesday, July 16, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31958-31959]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-13365]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of Industry and Security
[Docket No. 250709-0122; XRIN 0694-XC130]
Notice of Request for Public Comments on Section 232 National
Security Investigation of Imports of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)
and Their Parts and Components
AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Strategic Industries
and Economic Security, U.S. Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of request for public comments.
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SUMMARY: On July 1, 2025, the Secretary of Commerce initiated an
investigation to determine the effects on the national security of
imports of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their parts and
components. This investigation has been initiated under section 232 of
the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (Section 232). Interested
parties are invited to submit written comments, data, analyses, or
other information pertinent to the investigation to the Department of
Commerce's (Department) Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), Office
of Strategic Industries and Economic Security. This notice identifies
issues on which the Department is especially interested in obtaining
the public's views.
DATES: Comments may be submitted at any time but must be received by
August 6, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Comments on this notice may be submitted to the Federal
rulemaking portal at: www.regulations.gov. The regulations.gov ID for
this notice is BIS-2025-0059. Please refer to XRIN 0694-XC130 in all
comments.
All filers using the portal should use the name of the person or
entity submitting the comments as the name of their files, in
accordance with the instructions below. Anyone submitting business
confidential information should clearly identify the business
confidential portion at the time of submission, file a statement
justifying nondisclosure and referring to the specific legal authority
claimed, and provide a non-confidential version of the submission.
For comments submitted electronically containing business
confidential information, the file name of the business confidential
version should begin with the characters ``BC.'' Any page containing
business confidential information must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS
CONFIDENTIAL'' on the top of that page. The corresponding non-
confidential version of those comments must be clearly marked
``PUBLIC.'' The file name of the non-confidential version should begin
with the character ``P.'' Any submissions with file names that do not
begin with either a ``BC'' or a ``P'' will be assumed to be public and
will be made publicly available at: https://www.regulations.gov.
Commenters submitting business confidential information are encouraged
to scan a hard copy of the non-confidential version to create an image
of the file, rather than submitting a digital copy with redactions
applied, to avoid inadvertent redaction errors which could enable the
public to read business confidential information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen Astle, Director, Defense
Industrial Base Division, Office of Strategic Industries and Economic
Security, Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce,
(202) 482-4506, [email protected]. For more information about the
Section 232 program, including the regulations and the text of previous
investigations, see www.bis.doc.gov/232.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On July 1, 2025, the Secretary of Commerce initiated an
investigation under Section 232 (19 U.S.C. 1862) to determine the
effects on national security of imports of unmanned aircraft systems
(UAS) and their parts and components.
Request for Public Comments
This investigation is being undertaken in accordance with part 705
of the National Security Industrial Base Regulations (15 CFR parts 700
to 709) (NSIBR). Interested parties are invited to submit written
comments, data, analyses, or information pertinent to this
investigation to BIS's Office of Strategic Industries and Economic
[[Page 31959]]
Security no later than August 6, 2025. The Department is particularly
interested in comments and information directed at the criteria listed
in Sec. 705.4 of the regulations as they affect national security,
including the following:
(i) the current and projected demand for UAS and their parts and
components in the United States;
(ii) the extent to which domestic production of UAS and their parts
and components can meet domestic demand;
(iii) the role of foreign supply chains, particularly of major
exporters, in meeting United States demand for UAS and their parts and
components;
(iv) the concentration of U.S. imports of UAS and their parts and
components from a small number of suppliers or foreign nations and the
associated risks;
(v) the impact of foreign government subsidies and predatory trade
practices on the competitiveness of the UAS and their parts and
components industry, in the United States;
(vi) the economic impact of artificially suppressed prices of UAS
and their parts and components due to foreign unfair trade practices
and state-sponsored overproduction;
(vii) the potential for foreign nations and companies to weaponize
their control over supplies of UAS and their parts and components;
(viii) the potential for foreign nations and companies to weaponize
the capabilities or attributes of foreign-built UAS systems and their
parts or components;
(ix) the feasibility of increasing domestic capacity for UAS and
their parts and components to reduce import reliance;
(x) the impact of current trade policies on domestic production of
UAS and their parts and components, and whether additional measures,
including tariffs or quotas, are necessary to protect national
security; and
(xi) any other relevant factors.
Material submitted by members of the public that is business
confidential information will be exempted from public disclosure as
provided for by Sec. 705.6 of the regulations (see the ADDRESSES
section of this notice). Communications from agencies of the United
States Government will not be made available for public inspection. BIS
does not maintain a separate public inspection facility. Requesters
should first view the Bureau's web page, which can be found at: https://efoia.bis.doc.gov/ (see ``Electronic FOIA'' heading). If requesters
cannot access the website, they may call (202) 482-0795 for assistance.
The records related to this assessment are made accessible in
accordance with the regulations published at 15 CFR 4.1, et seq.
Julia Khersonsky,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Trade.
[FR Doc. 2025-13365 Filed 7-14-25; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-33-P