The United States has struck a trade deal with Indonesia resulting in significant purchase commitments from the Southeast Asian country, following negotiations to avoid steeper US tariffs.
US President Donald Trump announced the new deal on Tuesday.
The agreement imposes a 19 percent tariff on Indonesian goods entering the US, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Under the deal, which was finalised after Trump spoke with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, goods that have been transshipped to avoid higher duties will face steeper levies.
“As part of the Agreement, Indonesia has committed to purchasing $15 Billion Dollars in US Energy, $4.5 Billion Dollars in American Agricultural Products, and 50 Boeing Jets, many of them 777’s,” Trump wrote.
In a separate post earlier on Tuesday, Trump touted the finalised pact as a “great deal, for everybody”.
Boeing stock remained relatively flat on the announcement.
Last week, Trump renewed his threat of a 32 percent levy on Indonesian goods, saying in a letter to the country’s leadership that this level would take effect August 1.
It remains unclear when the lower tariff level announced Tuesday will take effect for Indonesia. The period over which its various purchases will take place was also not specified.
Lagging on trade agreements
The Trump administration has been under pressure to wrap up trade pacts after promising a flurry of deals recently, as countries sought talks with Washington, DC to avoid Trump’s tariff plans.
When Trump first postponed tariffs on April 2, the White House said it would have 90 deals in 90 days. But the US president has so far only unveiled other deals with Britain and Vietnam, alongside an agreement to temporarily lower tit-for-tat levies with China.
He separately told reporters that other deals are in the works including with India, while talks with the European Union are continuing.
Indonesia’s former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Dino Patti Djalal told a Foreign Policy magazine event on Tuesday that government insiders had indicated they were happy with the new deal.
Trump in April imposed a 10 percent tariff on almost all trading partners, while announcing plans to eventually hike this level for dozens of economies, including the EU and Indonesia.
Last week, days before the steeper duties were due to take effect, he pushed the deadline back from July 9 to August 1. This marked his second postponement of the elevated levies.
Instead, since early last week, Trump has been sending letters to partners, setting out the tariff levels they would face come August.
So far, he has sent more than 20 such letters, including to the EU, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia. Canada and Mexico, both countries that were not originally targeted in Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff push in April, also received similar documents outlining updated tariffs for their products.
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