On June 9, 2026, the General Administration of Customs officially issued Announcement No. 78 of 2026. The new regulations will be fully implemented on June 30.
The core content of this announcement is clear: Unify the export declaration standards for drones and supporting items across the country.
Controlled products must be marked with dual-use item codes, and products approaching critical parameters must proactively indicate their technical attributes and application scenarios.
This new regulation is not a new export control, but standardized customs clearance implementation details for the Ministry of Commerce’s previous drone control policies.
The full text will explain the deep industrial value of this policy.
1. The underlying logic behind the introduction of new regulations: The scale of the industry has jumped, and the governance system has simultaneously advanced.
my country is currently the world’s largest producer and exporter of drones, and the industry as a whole maintains a rapid growth trend.
Official public data from the General Administration of Customs in 2025:
- The total export volume of drones nationwide is 4.9473 million units, a year-on-year increase of 32.87%
- The total export value is 3.121 billion U.S. dollars
, a year-on-year increase of 45% - There are more than 15,000 low-altitude economic-related companies in the country, and Guangdong Province’s drone exports account for more than 90% of the country’s exports
As the industry continues to expand and the scale of overseas circulation continues to grow, the corresponding export governance system must be upgraded simultaneously.
Previously, the Ministry of Commerce has completed the finalization of top-level policies and issued Announcements No. 27 and 28 of 2023, and Announcement No. 31 of 2024 to clarify the technical thresholds and control scope of dual-use items such as drones, flight controls, inertial navigation, and optoelectronic loads.
At the practical level of the industry, there has been a long-standing industry status quo of clear top-level policies and inconsistent customs clearance declaration standards across regions.
The core value of Announcement No. 78 is to complete the closed loop of policy implementation and transform the national macro-control requirements into nationally unified, verifiable, traceable and standardized customs clearance operation specifications.
At the same time, drones and core components are typical dual-use technical items for both military and civilian use.
As an important participant in the international non-proliferation system, my country has unified export declaration specifications and clarified the flow of product technology. This is an important measure to align with international rules and demonstrate industrial compliance capabilities and the responsibility of a major country.
2. Objective development stage characteristics of the industry before the new regulations are implemented
Based on official public customs clearance statistics, the rapidly growing drone industry, before the implementation of unified standards, shows normal stage characteristics of the industry expansion period.
-
There are differences in declaration standards in various regions
Before the introduction of unified national declaration rules, the customs declaration habits of different regions and different enterprises were not uniform. Similar products had inconsistent classification methods and parameter labeling details. The industry was in the transition stage of gradual standardization.
-
The compliance capabilities of industry entities are growing in a gradient
The structure of domestic UAV export companies is rich, and the compliance construction progress of entities of different sizes is different.
The compliance systems of leading enterprises are mature and perfect, medium-sized enterprises continue to iterate and optimize internal processes, small and medium-sized enterprises and trading enterprises are gradually building compliance systems, and the overall growth pattern is steadily upgrading. -
International high-end markets continue to increase compliance and traceability requirements
Public foreign trade data in 2025 shows that my country’s main export markets for drones are concentrated in high-end markets such as Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, accounting for about 25% of the overall export share.
Overseas developed countries have strict inspections on the import of dual-use items and have extremely high requirements for the authenticity of product parameters, standardization of export processes, and technical traceability.
The previous status quo of inconsistent declaration standards has increased the verification costs for overseas customers to a certain extent.
The industry urgently needs national-level unified standards to strengthen the international credit endorsement of domestic drones.
3. Four positive values from the implementation of the new regulations: Comprehensive reshaping of high-quality industrial ecology
This new regulation does not increase industry entry barriers or increase corporate compliance burdens. The core is to unify rules, eliminate differences, stabilize expectations, and benefit compliant enterprises, and release long-term dividends for high-quality development of the industry.
-
The customs clearance process is unified across the country, and foreign trade delivery is more stable
The new regulations enable full-dimensional standardized declaration of drone exports product name, parameters, coding, purpose, flow direction.
The implementation standards are consistent across the country, effectively eliminating regional differences in customs clearance, reducing audit uncertainty, greatly improving the export circulation efficiency and delivery stability of compliant enterprises, and enhancing the global delivery competitiveness of domestic drones. -
Purify the industry competitive environment and promote healthy industrial upgrading
After the implementation of unified official standards, industry competition has completely bid farewell to the extensive development model.
The focus of market competition has returned to technical strength, product quality, compliance capabilities, and supporting services.
In the long run, high-quality companies with standardized operations, solid technology, and standard processes will continue to benefit, driving a steady increase in the overall added value of the industry and promoting the industry’s shift from scale growth to quality growth. -
Strengthen national compliance endorsement and open up the global high-end market
Standardized, traceable, and verifiable export system to provide official credit certification for domestic drones.
It can effectively reduce additional review barriers in overseas markets and alleviate cognitive biases in international trade.
The brand image of domestic drones will be upgraded from the traditional cost-effective label to high-end industrial equipment with compliant processes, reliable technology, and controllable flow direction, helping companies to develop high value-added overseas tracks such as surveying and mapping, power inspections, emergency rescue, and low-altitude logistics. -
Forcing the iteration of industrial chain technology and consolidating the base of independent and controllable low-altitude industries
After the unification of compliance standards, industry resources will further concentrate on tracks that are purely civilian, high-added value, and high-tech barriers.
The company will focus more on self-research and upgrade of core technologies such as high-precision inertial navigation, intelligent AI flight control, miniaturized photoelectric loads, aviation lightweight materials, and civil long-range power systems.
Drive the upstream and downstream supporting industries to comply with regulations and iterate simultaneously, and continue to improve the domestic independent and controllable low-altitude full industry chain system.
IV. Four compliance tasks that drone companies can directly implement
In line with the requirements of the new regulations, all are practical, standardized, and immediately executable corporate actions:
-
Establish a product compliance ledger
Compare the control list of the Ministry of Commerce Announcement No. 31 of 2024, complete the screening of all product categories, and divide the products into regulated categories, critical parameter categories, and ordinary civilian categories to achieve refined classification management. -
Strictly implement unified declaration specifications Fill in the remarks column in accordance with the requirements of Announcement No. 78 to ensure that customs declarations, contracts, invoices, and product technical datahave unified parameters, consistent information, and are authentic and verifiable.
-
Improve overseas customer due diligence and flow management Establish overseas end-user registration and product usage declaration mechanisms, clarify the civilian attributes of products in cooperation agreements, and ensure that product usage is compliant and flow is clear and controllable.
-
Deeply explore compliance civilian scenarios and strengthen technological innovation barriers Continue to deploy high-quality compliance scenarios such as urban governance, agricultural plant protection, power operation and maintenance, emergency rescue, and low-altitude logistics, replace low-price competition with technology iterations and product upgrades, and build long-term core competitiveness.
V. Industry Summary: Compliance and standardization are the core confidence for low-altitude economic voyages
The implementation of Customs Announcement No. 78 is a landmark institutional upgrade for China’s drone industry from large to strong, from fast to excellent.
Unified rules, transparent processes, controllable flows, and technological advancement will continue to purify the industrial ecology, strengthen international competitiveness, and lay a solid foundation for compliance for the development of the domestic low-altitude economy across the board.
In the future, compliance, intelligence, and high-end development will become the core advantages for domestic drones to gain a foothold in the global market and seize the high-end industrial value chain.
