The unmanned aerial vehicles in international trade and their regulation

Objective to review the current situation in production and distribution of unmanned aerial vehicles further ndash UAVs in developed countries as well as the legal regulation issues. Methods abstractlogic summarizing and observation comparative analysis. Results The analysis of international trade in UAVs revealed the leading countries dominating the market Israel the USA and Canada. The leading importers are India UK and France. China and Russian Federation are important producers but are just marginally involved in international trade having rather protectionist trade policies. The characters of national regulatory frameworks vary significantly from country to country while the Czech Republic belongs to the rather liberal group of EU members. Scientific novelty So far the journal publications in regard of UAVs have addressed uniquely technical issues and economic issues have been unattended. This paper clarifies the terminology mess analyses trade policy issues trade and production statistics and regulatory concerns linked to this steeply growing segment that is subject to doubleuse items regulations. Practical value Given a lack of relevant publications focused on international trade in UAVs in particular the paper provides a complex overview of current state of play in terms of this promising yet very controversial subject