The FCC Wants to Move Electronics Testing Out of China

Before a phone, router, camera or baby monitor can be marketed in the United States, it generally has to pass through an FCC-recognized test lab. On October 7, the Federal Communications Commission said it will vote on October 29 on final rules limiting that recognition to labs in the United States or in economies that give U.S. labs reciprocal treatment. Reuters reports that the rule would bar every China-based lab from the process.^[1][2][6]

The scale is the useful part. FCC Chair Brendan Carr says 82% of electronics were tested in China in 2025. Less than 4% were tested in the United States.^{[1][2][3][4][6]}

Washington spent years moving the inspection desk overseas. It has now discovered national security, reciprocity and the political pleasures of saying onshore. Splendid. The desk still needs people, facilities and enough throughput to handle the pile of laptops currently arriving on the conveyor belt.

The FCC says the rule would take effect December 2028. The agency is also proposing a faster approval path for devices tested in the United States or other reciprocal, lower-risk economies. That runway matters: this is not evidence of an immediate product shortage, and the Commission has not yet taken the final vote.^[1][2][6]

In 2025, the FCC barred labs owned or controlled by foreign adversaries. The new order would broaden the boundary from ownership to geography and reciprocity, converting a security concern into a supply-chain relocation project.^[2][5][6]

Fact and inference

The facts are the October 29 vote, the proposed December 2028 effective date, the FCC's 82% and under-4% figures, and the reciprocal-economy test. The inference is that moving such a concentrated certification pipeline will create a capacity and pricing problem unless domestic and allied labs expand quickly.^[1][2][6]

Washington wants to move the inspection desk. Whether replacement capacity arrives in time is the industrial-policy question.