Jakarta. The government revealed Thursday that the United States had been the biggest buyer of Indonesian toys as Washington’s fresh tariff hikes had been around for a week. 

According to Mohammad Rudy Salahuddin, a senior official at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Indonesia is the world’s fifteenth-largest exporter of toys, making up 0.9 percent of the global share. The US -- a country that has spent the past few months fretting about its trade imbalance -- turns out to be Indonesia’s top export destination. 

“About 60 percent of our toy exports go to the US, followed by the UK, Singapore, and Mexico,” Rudy told a Barbie event in Jakarta on Thursday.

"The US accounts for 32.2 percent of the global toy demand, so that’s where the biggest market is," he said.

Indonesia has also been enjoying a surplus in the international toy trade since 2019, amounting to around $66.6 million in the first quarter of 2025, government data showed. Rudy did not go into details on how many toys the US usually bought each year in dollar terms. However, the US has been mainly driving Indonesia’s overall positive trade balance, even adding almost $8.6 billion to the surplus between January and June.

American President Donald Trump has been charging Indonesia a 19 percent tariff rate on goods that it exports to the US since last Thursday. Trump originally planned a 32 percent duty on Indonesia, but decided to slash the rate following months-long bilateral talks. Rudy refused to comment when asked by the Jakarta Globe on how the tariff hikes would affect Indonesia’s US-bound exports.

However, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani had admitted back in April that exports of the famed doll Barbie and scale model cars Hot Wheels had come up in the tariff negotiations with the US Department of the Treasury. She told reporters at the time that the US was the biggest importer of Barbie, and Indonesia was the doll’s top producer.

California-based Barbie maker Mattel already has a local production in Cikarang’s Jababeka, West Java. A large part of the output goes into supplying the foreign markets. According to Mattel Indonesia’s vice president and general manager, Roy Tandean, its weekly production capacity can reach up to 2 million dolls and 4 million diecast cars.

“We are the first foreign investor in Jababeka, which has now grown to be one of the most successful industrial zones in the country,” Roy said.

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