Indonesia seals trade deal with US
The White House announced a reciprocal trade agreement with Indonesia while President Prabowo Subianto was in Washington to attend the first meeting of President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. Under the agreement, Southeast Asia’s largest economy will eliminate tariffs for 99 per cent of American goods while the US will maintain tariffs on most Indonesian goods at 19 per cent, the White House said.
That is the same rate the US has set for Cambodia and Malaysia. Indonesia also agreed to address non-tariff barriers to US goods and to remove restrictions on exports to the US for critical minerals and other industrial commodities, the White House said.
Indonesian and US companies also reached 11 deals this week worth $38.4 billion, including purchases of US soybeans, corn, cotton and wheat, cooperation in critical minerals and oil field recovery, and joint ventures in computer chips. “We have negotiated very intensively over the last few months, and I think we have reached solid understandings on many issues,” Prabowo told business executives Wednesday at the US Chamber of Commerce.
A White House statement called it a “great deal” and said it “will help both countries to strengthen economic security, promote economic growth, and thereby continuously lead to global prosperity.” The agreement was later signed by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and his Indonesian counterpart, Airlangga Hartarto.
Hartarto told a news conference from Washington that both Governments cast the agreement as marking the start of a “new golden age” in bilateral economic ties and Indonesia will introduce measures designed to keep trade flows secure and prevent misuse of sensitive goods.
The agreement was announced the same day that Prabowo, leader of the world’s most populous Muslim country, reiterated his pledge at the Board of Peace meeting to send 8,000 troops or “more if necessary” for an international stabilisation force in Gaza.
