Jakarta. Indonesia’s plan to simplify state restrictions for a better business climate is not only intended to cater to US companies, but the entire private sector, regardless of where they come from, according to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani.

Indonesia’s high-ranking officials, including senior minister Airlangga Hartarto, have been in Washington DC for the past week to negotiate the looming 32 percent import tax that will hit US-bound Indonesian goods soon. Before the delegation headed to the US, President Prabowo Subianto had announced that Indonesia would make reforms to better accommodate businesses. 

Speaking to reporters via a teleconference from Washington DC, Sri Mulyani said that Indonesia had also brought up the deregulation at the negotiating table. However, the regulatory changes would not only be meant to satisfy the American companies.

“The non-tariff barriers that the US has raised include procedures that they find to have put American companies at a disadvantage. In this context, we will take a look if we can remove or better modify them for the businesses in Indonesia,” Sri Mulyani told the press conference on Friday morning, Jakarta time.

“Just like what President Prabowo has said, the deregulation aims to reduce the barriers to the private sector from doing business [in Indonesia]. So it doesn’t only target [companies from] the US,” she added.

The minister went on to say that the regulatory improvements could provide an impetus to the national industry competitiveness. She said: “More simplified regulations, among others, can boost industry competitiveness. This will be the focus of our reform in addition to making it one of the bargaining chips in the negotiations with the US.” 

Airlangga, who helmed Indonesia’s negotiating team, told the same presser that Indonesia sought a “fair and square” trade in the US tariff talks. “To this end, we will pursue deregulation to improve ease of doing business, trade, and investment, which will create job opportunities,” Airlangga said.

The US has accused Indonesia of imposing a wide variety of barriers on American goods and companies, ranging from local content requirements to non-transparent tax auditing processes. The local content policy mandates producers -- including smartphone manufacturers -- to domestically source parts of the components before they can sell in Indonesia. American tech giant Apple was once barred from selling the iPhone 16 after it failed to meet the local content requirement. 

The Indonesian government has previously said that it was mulling an “incentive-based” local content policy. Prabowo, too, has called for a “more realistic” local content rule, while also unveiling plans to lift import quota on commodities crucial to people’s welfare. The national food agency Bapanas later clarified that Indonesia was only considering buying foreign agricultural products whose domestic supplies were still insufficient. These eased rules, however, are still far from final. Airlangga not long ago revealed that Indonesia was also considering establishing a task force in charge of the deregulation process.