Indonesia–US Trade Tariff Talks Completed, Await Leaders’ Meeting, Airlangga Says
Bogor, W. Java. Indonesia has completed negotiations with the United States on a new trade tariff arrangement and is now awaiting a meeting between President Prabowo Subianto and US President Donald Trump to formalize the deal, Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto said on Monday.
Airlangga said substantive talks with Washington have concluded, with discussions entering the final stage of legal drafting before the agreement can be signed.
“Negotiations with the United States are essentially finished. What remains is fine-tuning the legal drafting,” Airlangga told reporters on the sidelines of the 2026 National Coordination Meeting between central and regional governments in Sentul, Bogor. “The next step is to wait for a mutually agreed schedule between President Prabowo and President Trump.”
He declined to disclose the agreed tariff levels, citing a non-disclosure agreement that remains in force until the deal is officially signed.
“We cannot reveal the figures yet because we are bound by a non-disclosure agreement. The details will be disclosed only after the signing,” he said.
Airlangga added that no date has been set for the leaders’ meeting, attributing the delay to shifting international schedules in recent weeks, including diplomatic engagements related to the Board of Peace.
“Recent global dynamics, including the signing of the Board of Peace and other international commitments, have affected scheduling,” he said. “But President Prabowo has also signed the Board of Peace, so we will see how the timing develops.”
He stressed that Indonesia’s participation in the Board of Peace, an international body spearheaded by Trump to oversee Gaza reconstruction, has no direct connection to the bilateral tariff negotiations.
“There is no correlation,” Airlangga said. “But naturally, priorities are shaped by the international agendas being signed. When we were in Davos, much of the discussion centered on peace and ongoing conflicts, including Ukraine and Gaza.”
President Prabowo met Trump in Davos last week during the launch of the Board of Peace, of which Indonesia is a founding member, an involvement that has drawn criticism from some quarters at home.
Prabowo has visited the White House only once since taking office, in November 2024, when Joe Biden was still US president.
The US has agreed to slash the reciprocal tariffs on Indonesian goods from 32% to 19%, thanks to a combination of import tax concessions and multi-billion-dollar purchase commitments. Last November, grocery price hikes prompted Trump to free a range of food imports, including cocoa and coffee, from his reciprocal tariffs. In late December, Airlangga announced a new arrangement that grants zero tariff for US-bound Indonesian palm oil.
Trade data from Indonesia’s Trade Ministry show the country posted a $16.5 billion surplus with the United States in the January–November 2025 period, surpassing the nearly $13 billion surplus recorded in all of 2024. Indonesia’s top exports to the US last year included electrical machinery and equipment worth $5.5 billion, knitted and crocheted apparel at $2.5 billion, and footwear at $2.2 billion.
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