Trump declares wind turbine imports a national security threat, orders trade talks instead of new tariffs

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, agreeing with the Commerce secretary that imports of wind turbines and their components and subcomponents threaten to impair U.S. national security. The order does not set a new tariff. Instead it directs the Commerce secretary and the U.S. trade representative to pursue, or continue, negotiations with foreign trading partners they consider appropriate, and to report on those talks at least once within 180 days.¹

The proclamation says that, depending on how the negotiations go, the president “may consider alternative remedies in the future.” It notes that Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows a plan of action that combines negotiations with other measures, including tariffs, and lets a president take further steps if an agreement is not reached within 180 days, is not carried out or proves ineffective. The Commerce secretary is also told to keep monitoring the imports and to flag any circumstances that might call for further action.¹

Existing tariffs stay in place

The order states that it does not change tariffs already imposed under Section 232. It says some wind turbine components and subcomponents contain significant amounts of aluminum, steel or copper and are already covered by the 2018 aluminum and steel proclamations, as amended, or the July 30, 2025, copper proclamation, as amended.¹

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security announced on Aug. 19, 2025, that it was adding 407 product categories to the list of steel and aluminum derivative products subject to those tariffs, and said the additions covered wind turbines and their parts and components. At the time, the bureau said the steel and aluminum content of the added products would face a 50% duty.²

What Commerce found

The Commerce secretary opened the investigation on Aug. 13, 2025, and the bureau asked for public comments by Sept. 9, 2025, according to its Federal Register notice. The notice asked for information on domestic demand and production, reliance on foreign suppliers, foreign subsidies and the risk of export restrictions.³

As summarized in the proclamation, the secretary’s report found that wind power is intermittent and requires grid operators to lean on fast-ramping fossil fuel generators as backup, and that resources devoted to wind could have gone to sources the report describes as more reliable. It found that networked inverters used in wind farms, most of them made abroad, could allow remote access to U.S. power systems, and that turbines can create radar “clutter” affecting air traffic control, weather forecasting, homeland security and defense missions. It also found that imports of turbine components and subcomponents have grown over the past decade while domestic capacity for some products, such as blades, has not meaningfully increased.¹

The proclamation does not give import values or volumes and does not include the text of the Commerce report.¹

Where the imports come from

An analysis published Sept. 8, 2025, by the American Action Forum, a Washington policy research group, said the United States imported about $1.8 billion worth of wind turbines and components in 2024. It listed Mexico, France, India, Denmark and Germany among the top countries of origin, said those five together accounted for 83% of U.S. wind turbine imports that year and said Mexico alone supplied nearly one-third.⁴

What the records do not show

• The text of the Commerce secretary’s report and the full range of actions it recommended; the proclamation summarizes only some findings.¹
• Which trading partners Commerce and the trade representative will negotiate with, or whether any talks are already underway.¹
• Official government figures on the value or volume of U.S. wind turbine and component imports; the proclamation gives none.¹
• Any public response to the proclamation from wind industry companies or trade groups.