On October 22, 2026, President Trump issued a proclamation (the “Proclamation”), which (1) finds that imports of wind turbines and their components threaten the United States’ national security and (2) instructs U.S. officials to begin negotiate with trading partners to adjust the imports of wind turbines and their components and subcomponents to address such national security threat.
The Proclamation marks the culmination of the Commerce Department’s investigation into wind turbine imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
The Proclamation does not impose new duties or other restrictions on wind turbines and their components. However, it does instruct U.S. officials to negotiate with trading partners with a view toward reducing potential national security threats arising from turbines and their components, explicitly leaving the door open for new duties or restrictions in the months ahead.
Key Takeaways
The Proclamation provides certain findings from the Secretary of Commerce to explain why imports of wind turbines and their components threaten national security. These include the possibility of wind farm interference with radar systems and wind project cybersecurity vulnerabilities due to the use of foreign-produced products such as inverters.
The Commerce Department’s findings about potential cybersecurity risks arising from wind farms recall the rationales that the Trump administration provided to support the August 2026 Executive Order 14421 and the July 2026 restrictions on foreign-produced inverters, which were issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In both of those cases, regulators targeted certain foreign-made items, citing the risk that those products could let external actors gain backdoor access and interfere with the wider power system.
The United States is currently negotiating broader trade issues with several countries that top the list of sources for imported wind turbines and components, including Mexico, Denmark, France, and Germany. Whether the Proclamation will become the basis for new restrictions on wind turbine imports or whether it will serve largely as a source of leverage against Washington’s counterparties in these broader talks remains to be seen.
For now, the Proclamation does not introduce any new tariffs or other restrictions on foreign-produced wind turbines and components. Instead, the Proclamation instructs the Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative to negotiate with American trading partners with a view towards reducing the national security threats that the Proclamation describes, and to update the President on the progress of those negotiations within 180 days (that is, by April 20, 2027). It also calls on the Secretary of Commerce to inform the White House of grounds for further actions related to wind turbines under Section 232, and it suggests that the White House may take such action if the trade negotiations it calls for do not produce satisfactory results by April 20, 2027. In short, the door remains open for future restrictions on imported wind turbines and components.
Certain wind components containing steel, aluminum or copper remain subject to existing metal tariffs introduced under Section 232.
Recommendations
Clients that are developing, repowering, or acquiring wind projects can take several steps to reduce the uncertainties that the Proclamation has created.
First, clients should review both ongoing and previously executed equipment supply agreements, EPC agreements, and MIPAs for potential impacts and amendments, paying particular attention to change-in-law, tariff cost allocation, force majeure, compliance, substitution, and delay-damages provisions. Clients should also work with knowledgeable counsel to update forms of such agreements to incorporate protections against increased costs for developers and owners that could arise from new restrictions on wind turbine imports under Section 232. In both cases, the goal should be to ensure that the costs associated with any new restrictions fall on suppliers.
Second, clients should review the warranties associated with ongoing and previously executed supply agreements for wind turbines and their components. In particular, clients should identify and seek to amend any clauses that allow foreign companies to have exclusive access to the monitoring or control of turbines and components so as to prevent potential access or control concerns by foreign parties.
Finally, clients should watch for any announcements related to new Section 232 restrictions on imports of wind turbines and components. Though the Proclamation does not specify when such announcements or restrictions might arrive, the 180-day timeline specified in the Proclamation suggests that further action could be possible in April or May of 2027.
CEC will continue to monitor and report on these developments.
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