STRENGTHENING AMERICAN INDUSTRY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (Section 232) to address the threatened impairment of national security with respect to imports of robotics, industrial machinery, and their parts and components.
- The Proclamation directs the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to jointly negotiate agreements with trading partners to address the threatened impairment of national security with respect to imports of robotics and industrial machinery, as well as their parts and components, from any country.
- The Secretary of Commerce will inform the President of any circumstances that might indicate the need for further action under Section 232 with respect to robotics, industrial machinery, and their parts and components.
- The President may take other actions he deems necessary to adjust imports of robotics, industrial machinery, and their parts and components to eliminate the threat to the national security of the United States.
ADDRESSING THE THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY: President Trump recognizes that robotics, industrial machinery, and their parts and components are indispensable to virtually all modern manufacturing, including for defense, commercial, and dual-use purposes.
- Nearly all modern defense systems and critical infrastructure sectors require the use of robotics or industrial machinery.
- Despite a recent surge in investments in U.S. manufacturing facilities across numerous industries, the United States produces less robotics and industrial equipment than it consumes and lacks the capacity to satisfy increasing U.S. demand for robotics, industrial machinery, and their parts and components. Therefore, the United States relies on foreign imports for most types of robotics, industrial machinery, and their parts and components.
- Without a robust domestic robotics and industrial machinery ecosystem, the U.S. industrial base will continue to rely on foreign imports, threatening the national security of the United States and the long-term competitiveness of one of its most important industrial sectors.
BUILDING ON A RECORD OF SECURING CRITICAL INDUSTRIES: President Trump has long recognized that America’s national security and economic strength depend on restoring key sectors of our industrial base.
- In his first term, President Trump revolutionized international trade by employing Section 232 to address decades of short-sighted, globalist trade policies that had allowed our domestic steel and aluminum industries to weaken, impairing our national security.
- Since returning to office, President Trump has continued taking actions under Section 232 to protect and strengthen domestic manufacturing critical for the United States’ national and economic security, including imposing and strengthening tariffs on key goods, such as steel, aluminum, copper, automobiles, trucks, timber and lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, polysilicon, and drones.
- Through negotiations with foreign trading partners and the strategic use of tariffs, President Trump has secured trillions in private and foreign investment to bring American jobs and manufacturing back to the United States while diversifying global supply chains and reducing dependence on adversarial nations.