Jakarta. Senior minister Airlangga Hartarto recently told US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that Jakarta would continue its pursuit of an “open dialogue” as the deadline for Washington's tariffs on Indonesian goods draws nearer.

Airlangga is in Paris for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) talks. The United States is one of the OECD’s founding members, while Indonesia is trying to join the rich-country club in pursuit of stronger economic growth. Airlangga and Greer held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the OECD meeting, with the ongoing tariff negotiations being high up on the agenda.

 US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 32 percent tariffs on Indonesian goods after the businessman-turned-politician accused Jakarta of unfair trading practices. Indonesia has been nudging the Trump government into revising this policy, which will be put into force next month. President Prabowo Subianto even sent a high-level delegation led by Airlangga himself to the US back in April.

“We are committed to giving a list of preferential tariffs for US commodities before the second round of negotiations. [This next round] will take place in June in Washington, DC. We are ready to continue to pursue an open dialogue and address all sorts of challenges in terms of tariffs, non-tariff barriers, digital trade, rules of origin, as well as economic and national security issues,” Airlangga was quoted as saying in a ministerial press statement.

Airlangga said that the technical teams of both countries had been in talks with one another to assess the draft agreement proposed by the US. The minister did not go into details on what the US had offered. However, Indonesia has pledged to increase its US energy and agricultural imports to narrow the trade imbalance. Jakarta will also continue to push for strategic investment in priority sectors.

"We hope that both parties can work together in good faith to find mutually beneficial solutions, as has been proven in past trade agreements," Airlangga said.

Official statistics showed that Indonesia-US trade totaled almost $38.3 billion in 2024, but the numbers mainly came from Jakarta’s exports. Indonesia’s exports to the US amounted to $26.3 billion that year, thus indicating a $14.3 billion gap. In other words, Indonesia is earning more money when trading with the US -- something that has ruffled Trump’s feathers.

The gap also remained large in the first four months of 2025. Indonesia recorded a $5.4 billion surplus when trading with the US over the said period. These latest statistics already took into account the baseline 10 percent tariff that has been in place on US-bound goods starting early April.

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