By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) – The chair of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, said on Thursday that restrictions on imports of Chinese robots and power inverters are aimed at quickly spurring U.S. production and addressing national security risks.
The FCC, which regulates U.S. telecommunications, has banned new models of foreign drones, routers, robots and power inverters since December, granting waivers to non-Chinese suppliers while effectively shutting out Chinese manufacturers.
“We’re telling people that now is the time to onshore a lot of the investment and develop it into what could be critical elements of our national security,” Carr said, adding, “We don’t want to be in a situation five years from now where you’ve got many thousands or millions of these types of devices that are a national security risk.”
The FCC last month barred Chinese imports of new humanoid and quadruped robots and connected power inverters, which enable renewable energy sources and batteries to connect to grids and data center equipment. The measures triggered Chinese retaliation earlier this week.
Reuters reported earlier this week that the FCC was drafting a ban on U.S. imports of new models of Chinese data center components, known as optical transceivers, as it seeks to protect the infrastructure that undergirds the AI boom.
When asked about the report, Carr deferred to other agencies.
“The decision about what to add is one that’s driven by the executive branch, national security agencies. They make the decision. We then implement the decision they make. So I’d refer you to them for any comment on what, if anything, they may have next,” he said.
Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez welcomed Carr’s national security-focused actions but took aim at the process.
“What I’m hearing from a lot of American companies and industry leaders is that they’re concerned about the haphazard way, the chaotic way, in which we’ve seen the rollout of basically profound changes” to FCC tech policy, she said. “If we want to avoid the appearance of favoring certain actors from others, we need transparency….Otherwise, this actually looks like is just industrial policy,” she added.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Writing by Alexandra Alper and David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter and Sanjeev Miglani)
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