Jakarta. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani warned Thursday that Indonesia could be a future target for US President Donald Trump's tariffs amid the huge bilateral trade deficit.

The nascent Trump 2.0 administration has already witnessed back-and-forth tariff moves. Trump does not even hesitate retaliating if countries launch reciplocal tariffs. Since his White House return, Trump has been slapping tariffs against China, Canada, and Mexico -- all among the top contributors to the US' deficit. A deficit means that the US is importing more goods and services than it exports.

Data shown during Sri Mulyani's presser even showed that the US had ran a whopping $319.1 billion deficit with China in 2024, making up the largest share in Washington's negative trade balance that year. Seconded by Mexico ($175.9 billion). Canada sits in seventh place with $73.7 billion deficit for the US. Trump has also accused Canada and Mexico of letting the lethal fentanyl drug entering the American soil, further causing cracks in their relations.

"The war has now shifted to economic aspects. Global trade that is once rule-based can be single-handedly changed. Trump is clearly targeting countries with whom the US is recording a deficit. ... And Indonesia is the fifteenth-largest contributor [to the US' deficit in 2024]," Sri Mulyani told reporters in Jakarta.

She said: "This is something that we really have to keep an eye on. If the US puts tariffs on its deficit contributors, we are in 15th place." 

The US logged a $19.3 billion deficit with Indonesia last year, just behind Swiss ($39.1 billion) and its close neighbor Malaysia ($26.1 billion). Trump's tariffs are also looming for Vietnam, whose party leader had visited Indonesia earlier this week. The US trade deficit with Vietnam topped $129 billion in 2024, data showed. Sri Mulyani also warned that the Trump 2.0 could cause a disruption in the supply chain following the heightened trade war.

Trump was already aware of his country's trade imbalances with Indonesia during his first term. In 2018, the tycoon-turned-president ordered a review on the eligibility of the so-called generalized system of preferences (GSP) which had granted Indonesia and other developing countries duty-free access to the American market. He had even removed countries like India from the preferential status. The US extended Indonesia's membership in the GSP in early November 2020, but the entire trade preference program had expired later that year. The GSP is now waiting for congressional renewal.

According to the Central Statistics Agency, Indonesia-US trade hit $3.3 billion in January 2025. The Southeast Asian country saw a $1.3 billion surplus in the bilateral trade that month.

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