Indonesia to boost US imports to avoid tougher tariffs: minister
Trump announced sweeping, harsher-than-expected global levies in April, punishing allies like security partner Indonesia for running a trade surplus with the economic superpower.
Trump announced a deal with Vietnam on Wednesday under which the country would face a minimum 20 percent tariff.
Any similar agreement would mean Jakarta will escape the threat of a more severe 32 percent tariff on top of a baseline 10 percent.
'Indonesia will counterbalance with US energy, agriculture and merchandise imports,' minister Airlangga Hartarto told AFP.
Jakarta had earlier said it would aim to boost oil and gas imports from the United States as part of a deal to avoid tougher tariffs by the July 9 deadline.
Airlangga said negotiations were ongoing with the US government and private companies, with a memorandum of understanding expected soon.
'Indonesia is in the process with US and Indonesian state and private companies in the negotiations with US counterparts,' he said, adding that Jakarta was 'hopeful' for an MOU to be signed soon.
The United States is one of Indonesia's top trading partners, and Jakarta enjoyed a $16.8 billion trade surplus with Washington in 2024, according to Indonesian government data.
Data from the US trade representative office shows Washington's goods trade deficit with Jakarta was $17.9 billion in 2024, up 5.4 percent increase on the year prior.
The US-Vietnam deal came a week before the threatened US reimposition of steep tariffs on dozens of economies, including the European Union and Japan.
Many countries are still scrambling to reach deals with Washington that would protect them from the measures.
Those higher tariffs are part of a package Trump initially imposed citing a lack of 'reciprocity' in trading relationships, before announcing a temporary lowering to 10 percent.
Since then, Washington has announced a pact with Britain and a deal to temporarily lower retaliatory duties with China. – AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Urgent: U.S. House passes Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill
NEW YORK, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill with a vote of 218 to 214 on Thursday. The bill will be sent to the president's desk by the deadline of July 4, which was set by Trump. Two Republican representatives voted against the bill.
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
78 Vietnamese citizens safely evacuated from Israel, Iran
Israeli emergency responders work at the site of a damaged building following an Iranian missile strike in Beersheba in southern Israel. - Photo: AFP/VNA HANOI: The situation of the Vietnamese community in Israel and Iran remains stable, and no casualties have been recorded as tension between the two Middle Eastern countries wound down following a ceasefire, according to the latest updates. Foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang told reporters this on Thursday (July 3) in response to questions about efforts to protect citizens in these countries. "Amid new developments related to the Middle East, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all relevant authorities within the country continue to provide guidance for Vietnamese diplomatic missions in Israel and Iran, to maintain hotlines for Citizen Protection and to report back to the foreign ministry and all relevant authorities in the country on emerging issues," the spokesperson said at the press briefing in Hanoi. The missions are also being told to continue working closely with authorities in their respective countries as well as nearby Vietnamese diplomatic missions abroad, all relevant authorities and other diplomatic missions in the field to closely monitor and stand ready to provide any measure to secure safety for Vietnamese citizens and diplomatic missions in emergency situations. The foreign ministry urged Vietnamese citizens who are living, studying or working in Israel and Iran to continue to adhere to principles, regulations and guidance from local authorities on safety and security, as well as to maintain close and regular contact with diplomatic missions in their countries. In the very first phase of the conflict, implementing the guiding principles of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassies of Vietnam in Israel and Iran worked closely with relevant local authorities as well as diplomatic missions of Việt Nam in Russia and Egypt to provide emergency evacuation for 78 Vietnamese citizens to leave Israel and Iran in a safe manner, the spokesperson noted. Of these evacuated citizens, 63 have already returned to Vietnam. During these challenging times, Vietnam's missions in Israel and Iran will continue to maintain regular communication with Vietnamese citizens in their respective countries so that they can provide timely support to these citizens, including via the hotlines. - Vietnam News/ANN
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Putin tells Trump he won't back down from goals in Ukraine, Kremlin says
Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaks during a plenary session of a forum organised by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) in Moscow, Russia, July 3, 2025. Sputnik/Ramil Sitdikov/Pool via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Thursday that Moscow wants a negotiated end to the Ukraine war but will not step back from its original goals, a Kremlin aide said. In a wide-ranging conversation that also covered Iran and the Middle East, Trump "again raised the issue of an early end to military action" in Ukraine, the aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters. "Vladimir Putin, for his part, noted that we continue to seek a political and negotiated solution to the conflict," Ushakov said. Putin briefed Trump on the implementation of agreements reached between Russia and Ukraine last month to exchange prisoners-of-war and dead soldiers, Ushakov said, and told him that Moscow was ready to continue negotiations with Kyiv. "Our president also said that Russia will achieve the goals it has set: that is, the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, to the current acute confrontation, and Russia will not back down from these goals," he added. There was nothing in the Kremlin readout to suggest that Putin had made any shift in Moscow's position during the conversation with Trump, who took office with a promise to end the war swiftly but has voiced frequent frustration with the lack of progress between the two sides. The phrase "root causes" is shorthand for the Kremlin's argument that it was compelled to go to war in Ukraine to prevent the country from joining NATO and being used by the Western alliance as a launch pad to attack Russia. Ukraine and its European allies say that is a specious pretext for what they call an imperial-style war, but Trump in previous public comments has shown sympathy with Moscow's refusal to accept NATO membership for Ukraine. Putin and Trump did not talk about the U.S. decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine, Ushakov said. On Iran, he said, "the Russian side emphasised the importance of resolving all disputes, disagreements and conflict situations exclusively by political and diplomatic means". Trump last month sent U.S. military bombers to strike three Iranian nuclear sites, in a move condemned by Moscow as unprovoked and illegal. (Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Lucy Papachristou)
