JAKARTA: Indonesia announced a raft of concessions on U.S. imports Tuesday, including reducing taxes on electronic goods and steel, ahead of trade negotiations with Washington over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Southeast Asia’s biggest economy will send a high-level delegation to the United States next week in hopes of securing a deal to ease the impact of a 32% tariff due to take effect on Wednesday.
Indonesia plans to buy U.S. liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas and soybeans as part of the negotiation efforts, said chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto, who will lead the delegation travelling to Washington on April 17.
He was speaking at a conference discussing how to respond to U.S. tariffs that was attended by President Prabowo Subianto, senior officials and business leaders.
Prabowo told the conference that some import quotas were no longer necessary. Indonesia imposes quotas on imported rice, corn, sugar and beef among other goods.
Indonesia says ASEAN meeting on tariffs to focus on negotiation, not retaliation
And there was also room for flexibility on what he called Indonesia’s uncompetitive local content rules, suggesting they should be replaced with incentives.
The rules came into the spotlight last year when Indonesia banned the iPhone 16. It was cleared for sale last month after Apple pledged more than $300 million in investments.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Indonesia would also lower import duties on U.S. steel, mining products and health equipment to 0% to 5% from 5% to 10% currently.
Taxes on electronics, mobile phones and laptops from any country will be lowered to 0.5% from 2.5%, she said.
The government is also discussing buying U.S. components for an oil refinery project.
Sri Mulyani said there was room for Indonesia to replace Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand, and China as a source of some exports to the U.S. under Washington’s new tariff regime.
President Prabowo’s economic advisor Luhut Pandjaitan, meanwhile, said Indonesia planned to discuss a partnership on critical minerals with Washington.
Indonesia posted a $16.8 billion trade surplus with the U.S. - its third-biggest export destination - last year, according to Indonesian government data, with electronics, apparel and clothing, and footwear its leading export products.
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