Jakarta. An Indonesian minister said Friday that the radioactive shrimp crisis would not sour the negotiations over tariffs with the United States, saying that they were two separate matters.

Indonesia has had quite an eventful year with the US so far. Although the US has officially slapped 19 percent tariffs on Indonesian goods, Jakarta is still trying to strike a final agreement with Washington, while hoping to insert tariff exemptions on certain commodities into the document.

Amid the tariff fiasco, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now keeping a close eye on Indonesian shrimps entering its market after the agency discovered traces of the hazardous radionuclide Caesium-137 in a sample.

Fishery Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono told reporters that Indonesia continued to engage in “intensive talks” with the US FDA to this day.

“But I don’t think what happened had anything to do [with the tariff negotiations]. This is about [radioactive] contamination,” Trenggono said on the margins of a sustainability forum in Jakarta.

According to Trenggono, Indonesia will try to convince the FDA that whatever shrimp the US imports “is free from radioactive contamination”. 

“The bottom line is there is no problem,” the minister said.

In early August, the FDA issued a recall of potentially contaminated frozen shrimp exported by local company Bahari Makmur Sejati. The shrimp did not enter US commerce, but the incident had prompted the agency to require import certification for shrimp from certain regions of Indonesia starting October. FDA has barred Bahari Makmur Sejati from the US.

The government's task force has identified Caesium-137 in 22 production facilities in Serang’s Cikande industrial area. One of the facilities, which belongs to Bahari Makmur Sejati, has already self-decontaminated, according to the task force’s spokesma,n Bara Hasibuan. The Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) confirmed that it was already clear of contamination. Indonesia’s shrimp exports generated around $1.7 billion in 2024, at least 60 percent of which went to the US that year.

In April, US President Donald Trump launched a tariff assault against nearly all trading partners, including Indonesia. Although Jakarta managed to reach a principal agreement in July, negotiations are underway to make the lower-than-promised 19 percent tariff “more official”. Indonesia wants to get certain commodities that the US cannot grow at home -- such as palm oil and cacao -- tariff-free. Jakarta’s chief negotiator, Airlangga Hartarto, recently revealed that they would finalize the deal by the end of the month. President Prabowo Subianto’s senior economic advisor, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, is currently in the US. Luhut wrote in a social media post that he had met with US Secretary of Commerce and “old friend” Howard Lutnick.

“Both countries are currently negotiating a reciprocal tariff agreement. Much remains to be worked on, but the talks are going in the direction that is constructive and mutually beneficial,” Luhut said.

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