Over the past three years, Mike Yoder made a name for himself in rural Ohio by selling a spray-drone trailer kit that saves farmers money and weeks of labor by dropping seeds, fertilizer and fungicide from the sky.
But Mr. Yoder’s company, nuWay Ag, has been struggling since last winter, when it became far more difficult to import drones made by a Chinese company, DJI, into the United States.
DJI, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial and industrial drones, is on the verge of being banned in the United States by federal lawmakers who accuse the company of a variety of infractions, including using forced labor, benefiting from unfair subsidies and being a cybersecurity threat.
Mr. Yoder recently had to let go of two of his 22 employees because he couldn’t get enough DJI drones to sell to make payroll.
The looming ban is part of a push to decouple the U.S. economy from China’s. It comes as artificial intelligence is transforming what drones can do, and as American manufacturers struggle to get a share of a growing market. DJI commands roughly 75 percent of the consumer market globally and is known for making drones that buyers say are affordable, easy to use, and full of bleeding-edge features that save time and money.
Construction companies use specialized DJI drones to monitor the progress of skyscrapers and submit automatic reports. Mining companies use DJI drones to calculate the output of mines. Land surveyors use drones with high-quality lenses to create detailed maps of terrain. Police officers use thermal drones to find lost children and fleeing suspects.
But the company has been caught in the geopolitical riptide of U.S.-Chinese relations.
Customs and Border Protection began seizing shipments of DJI drones in October, slowing imports to companies like Mr. Yoder’s. Then, in December, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a close Republican ally of President Trump, placed a provision into a defense bill that would ban the sale of new drones by DJI and Autel Robotics, another Chinese company, this December.
Sales could continue if a national security agency determines that the foreign drones do not “pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.” But the bill did not state which agency is responsible for making that assessment, and so far, none has publicly taken on the task. Ms. Stefanik joined a lawmaker letter to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in July urging an “expedited national security review,” but there is no sign of one, according to Adam Welsh, DJI’s head of global policy.
He said DJI had written to the Department of Defense and other national security agencies requesting a thorough examination of the drones to prove that they cannot transmit information to Chinese entities, as Ms. Stefanik has claimed.
“If we are given a fair process, we believe our products will pass,” Mr. Welsh said. He said DJI, which is suing the Department of Defense for placing it on a blacklist, remained open to discussions with the Trump administration about its concerns. DJI officials have even weighed the possibility of manufacturing drones on American soil, he said.
“If the U.S. government wants to build an industry, they could use us to build that industry,” he added.
But Mr. Welsh acknowledged that technical fixes or new investments were unlikely to placate lawmakers who seem intent on pushing DJI out of the country. “It would not destroy us to lose the U.S. market,” he said. “But it would certainty limit our growth.”A spokesman for Ms. Stefanik did not return requests for comment. Last fall, Ms. Stefanik wrote on social media that “DJI’s time in the United States is rightfully coming to an end.”
U.S. drone manufacturers are eagerly awaiting DJI’s exit, which they say would make room for American companies to play a bigger role in an increasingly vital industry. But few U.S. drone makers sell the kinds of consumer and industrial products that DJI makes, preferring to focus on the higher-margin business of supplying the military and public safety agencies.
There are 433,407 commercial drones registered in the United States, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, performing tasks such as utility line inspection, movie filming and land surveying. The vast majority are DJI drones, said Vic Moss, the volunteer director of the Drone Advocacy Alliance, a group that represents drone pilots who oppose a DJI ban.
Mr. Moss earns a living as an aerial photographer and videographer based in Colorado, and also makes maps for surveying companies. He has invested tens of thousands of dollars in DJI drones that can change lenses and apertures in midair, he said, and is now having difficulty getting them serviced.
“Nobody seems to be saying, ‘What are we doing to this industry? To the people who fly or sell drones for a living?’” Mr. Moss said. DJI sells an industrial-grade mapping drone for about $6,500, while American companies can charge as much as $35,000 for a similar product, he said.
DroneDeploy, a California software company that serves 5,000 businesses in 180 countries, including 18 of the 20 largest construction companies, said banning DJI could slow the development of software that allows drones to automate routine tasks, like construction progress reporting.
“What we really need to be solving for is some kind of orderly transition away from Chinese drones,” said Ben Hance, general counsel and head of strategic transactions for DroneDeploy. “A hard cutoff is likely to be very destructive.”
Even if a national security audit is conducted and DJI escapes a ban in December, the Trump administration has other tools at its disposal to limit the use of the company’s equipment. In July, the Commerce Department opened an investigation into whether imported drones threaten national security, paving the way for higher tariffs.
If the ban goes through, it will only prevent new DJI products from receiving F.C.C. licenses to fly. It would not immediately affect the hundreds of thousands of DJI drones that already have permission to fly.
But over time, DJI products would fade away in the United States, as customers would be unable to repair or replace them. American drone manufacturers would use that time to catch up with DJI’s technology and gain a foothold in the global market, said Michael Robbins, chief executive of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International.
“If you remove the juggernaut of DJI from the marketplace, you are going to see a lot of American companies thrive,” he said.
Some prominent people in Mr. Trump’s orbit stand to gain from such a result. Donald Trump Jr. sits on the board of Unusual Machines, a Florida company that supplies parts to the U.S. drone industry.
Joe Bartlett, deputy under secretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security, the Commerce Department agency that is conducting the drone investigation, previously served as director of federal policy for Skydio, a top U.S. drone manufacturer that supports the DJI ban. Mr. Bartlett also worked as Ms. Stefanik’s national security adviser.
American businesses that rely on DJI’s technology expressed anger in public comments submitted over the summer in response to the Commerce Department investigation.
“By rejecting affordable, capable foreign drones without viable domestic alternatives, the U.S. is forcing industries like agriculture, energy and public safety to either operate with outdated tech or face soaring costs,” wrote Ryan Latourette, a drone pilot in Michigan. He called the efforts against DJI “techno-paranoia” and “economic self sabotage.”
Mr. Yoder, the Ohio businessman who sells spray-drone kits, has been testing alternatives to DJI drones, chronicling his quest on YouTube. In one video, he used a DJI drone to spray a field for farmers whose American-made drone crashed into a hill.
Mr. Yoder said that he would love to buy American-made drones, but that they weren’t as reliable, safe or affordable. “They are so far behind DJI that is it embarrassing,” he said.
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