Jakarta. Indonesia aims to finish tariff talks with the US government by the end of the month, according to Jakarta’s Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, despite Washington’s shutdown stretching into its eighth day. 

Airlangga, who led  the Indonesian delegation in tariff talks with the US, said Thursday that both countries had reached a “principal agreement” on the import taxes, referring to the joint statement that officially put US tariffs on Indonesia at 19 percent. Indonesia recently admitted that the federal shutdown had put the tariff negotiations into a halt, but Airlangga admitted that he planned to speak with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday to discuss the next steps. The Jakarta Globe asked Airlangga how the talks with Greer went.

"Yes, [I did talk with Greer]. We will certainly have more intensive negotiations. And hopefully, we can wrap up the talks in two or three weeks [from now],” Airlangga revealed on the sidelines of the 2025 Investor Daily Summit in Jakarta.

Indonesia remains hopeful about freeing its palm oil from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Despite the principal agreement, Jakarta has been nudging the Trump government to exempt certain commodities from the tariffs, including US-bound palm oil, which reached 2.6 million tons in August -- the first month that the 19 percent tariffs entered into force.

“We will pursue [tariff exemptions] for Indonesian commodities that cannot be grown in the US and vice versa. That means palm oil and cacao,” Airlangga said.

“We are finalizing the trade deal. Our presidents have agreed on the principal agreement, so we are vigorously working on the legal drafts. We should get it done soon.”

The upcoming document is also likely to be more detailed compared to the joint statement announced back in July.

A day earlier, senior Chinese economist Justin Yifu Lin told the same conference that it’d be best for Jakarta to join forces with other ASEAN countries when engaging in talks with the US government. The Peking University professor said: “Indonesia, individually, does not have the cards to negotiate with the US.” 

Official statistics showed that Indonesia’s exports to the US only hit $2.72 billion in August, marking a 12.39 percent decline from the previous month. Despite Trump’s tariff assault, the US remained the biggest driver of Indonesia’s overall positive trade balance, contributing around $12.2 billion between January and August. Trump initially threatened Prabowo with a 32 percent tariff following concerns over trade imbalance, but decided to cut the rates after Jakarta made some concessions. In addition to multi-billion-dollar import pledges, Indonesia agreed to remove tariffs for American agri-food and industrial imports.

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