Trump opens 180-day wind turbine talks, forgoing new tariffs

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Thursday directing trade negotiations over wind turbine and component imports instead of new tariffs, after a Section 232 investigation, Utility Dive reported.

The order stops short of category-specific duties, and existing levies on steel, copper and aluminum that apply to some turbines and parts are unaffected.

Trump tasked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer with opening or continuing talks with trading partners and reporting back within 180 days. The Commerce Department launched the probe in August 2025.

For energy-transition allocators, the 180-day reporting window keeps tariff exposure on turbine and inverter procurement unresolved. The proclamation says Trump would consider alternative remedies after those talks, leaving open the possibility of duties on turbines and parts.

Most of the administration's previous Section 232 investigations ended in tariffs, including those on drones and components, furniture imports and some semiconductors. In July, Trump signed a similar order after a probe into commercial aircraft, jet engines and parts.

Trump also called wind energy "unreliable" and "burdensome" on the domestic power grid. The proclamation says the U.S. "is reliant" on turbine and part imports, which have increased over the last decade, and that foreign-made turbines and parts "present unique cybersecurity risks"; it singles out inverters, saying "the vast majority" of the components are made outside the U.S.