Compliance reference
Guides
Working references on the rules that shape how drones and components move between Taiwan, the United States and Europe. What each rule covers, who it applies to, and what it means in practice — for manufacturers and the people buying from them. Kept current as the rules change.
FCC Covered List & Taiwan Drones
Since December 2025, essentially all drones and drone critical components produced outside the United States are on the FCC's Covered List — the list of equipment that cannot be granted the FCC authorization a product needs before it can be imported, marketed, or sold in the US. The test is where the product was made, not what is inside it, so a bill of materials free of Chinese parts does not help. This guide covers what is on the list, what is exempt, and what the two ways to keep US market access require.
NDAA Sections 848 and 889 & Taiwan Drones
Section 889 of the FY2019 NDAA and Section 848 of the FY2020 NDAA are different rules covering different equipment. A Section 889 statement on a flight controller answers a question no drone buyer asked. This guide explains which provision governs which product, and what a compliance claim needs to contain to survive a procurement diligence check.
Trade Agreements Act & Taiwan Drones
The Trade Agreements Act asks one question: where was the end product — the article a federal agency actually buys — substantially transformed. Taiwan is a designated country, so a Taiwanese end product qualifies where a Chinese one cannot. The rule never looks inside that article, though, which is why a TAA certificate is not a China-free claim, and why a component sold into an aircraft someone else builds and delivers falls outside it entirely. The threshold, the GSA Schedule exception and where the claim gets overstated are below.
Blue UAS & Taiwan Drones
Blue UAS is usually described in Taiwan as a path toward eventual US military sales. Since January 2026 it is also the most direct exemption from the FCC Covered List — which makes it a commercial market access question with a date attached, not a long-term ambition. One Taiwanese company is currently listed.
Section 232 Tariffs & Taiwan Drones
The August 13, 2026 proclamation imposes tariffs of up to 100 percent on imported drones and components. Taiwan is one of the allied jurisdictions eligible for a capped rate of 15 percent — but the cap is conditional on the US importer certifying that substantially all critical components and technology originate in allied countries. This is the one US instrument where being free of Chinese content pays directly.
EU Content Rules & Taiwan Drones
SAFE and EDIP are the two EU funding instruments for defense procurement and defense industrial production. Both require at least 65 percent of component value to come from the EU, EEA-EFTA, or Ukraine, which caps third-country content at 35 percent. Taiwan counts toward that 35 percent, alongside the US and UK. These are conditions attached to EU money, though — a European or Ukrainian manufacturer buying with private capital is under no content obligation at all, and that is where much of Taiwan's current volume is going.
India Drone Import Rules & Taiwan Drone Components
One instrument closed India's finished-aircraft import market and left the parts market open: DGFT Notification 54/2015-20 of February 9, 2022 prohibits drones in CBU, SKD or CKD form while classifying drone components as Free. Its near-zero HS 8806 imports are the effect of that rule, not evidence of a small market. This guide covers where the CKD line sits, what the Free classification does not answer, and the origin verification a draft framework for Defence Acquisition Procedure 2026 would require.