Jakarta. Indonesia will not ease its mandatory dollar lock-up for US-bound exporters right away, according to a government source, who also admitted that other nations had approached Jakarta for a similar treatment.

Starting in June, all Indonesian exporters of natural resource commodities must park their foreign exchange earnings domestically for at least a year to lift the falling rupiah.

Senior minister Airlangga Hartarto has said that Indonesia would relax the rules for US-bound miners under a recent tariff deal. Such businesses will only have to retain at least 30% of their export proceeds onshore for no less than 3 months. They have the option to place the money in non-state banks, even possibly American banks. 

A government official, who refused to be named, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that this facility would not take effect immediately. US-bound exporters can only enjoy the shorter retention period once both sides ratify their February tariff deal. In other words, Indonesian firms shipping to Washington still have to comply with the originally intended retention rule until they finish the legal procedures.

"A bilateral pact is only effective after it is ratified. By that logic, the [eased lock-up cap] will not happen until [our tariff] pact reaches ratification," the source with direct knowledge of the US tariff negotiations said.

He signaled that the deal could relax Indonesia's centralized export regime for US shipments.

The resource-abundant country wants to run all strategic commodity exports via a single agency, the Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia (DSI), to prevent businesses from underreporting export values. DSI’s tasks will initially be limited to handling the export filings before dealing with the entire process by 2027. 

The source revealed that Jakarta’s existing trade deals, including an upcoming one with the European Union, did not include relaxations to the lock-up rule.

"It just so happened we had discussed it with [the US]."

“We also wish to strengthen our currency against the dollar. So please don't see it as Indonesia granting some sort of exclusivity. It's because we are eyeing a certain goal [of stabilizing the rupiah exchange rate against the greenback]."

Jakarta, however, is open for negotiations. Talks with unnamed countries are also underway, according to the source.

In February, Indonesia inked its long-awaited yet controversial reciprocal tariff deal with the US. The Donald Trump 2.0 administration agreed to lower its tariffs from 32% to 19% after locking Jakarta into heaps of concessions. But it did not take long for the Supreme Court to declare Trump’s tariffs as unlawful. Trump has launched unfair trade practice probes into Indonesia to rebuild a credible case for import tax hikes.

“Our negotiations with the US are pretty much done. But we are discussing which part [of the agreement] can immediately take effect or require some time,” the source said.

Indonesia’s exports to the US neared $7.3 billion in value in Q1 2026, with the annual shipments inching close to $31 billion throughout 2025, government data revealed.

Bloomberg spot market data showed that Indonesia’s rupiah hit Rp 17,741 per dollar as of Monday 2.41 p.m. Jakarta time.

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