Jakarta. US President Donald Trump recently made an unprecedented move of postponing his reciprocal tariffs against its trading partners, and this gives a chance for Indonesia to boost its footwear export, according to an analyst.

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he would give a 90-day delay for the reciprocal tariffs that had sparked global shockwaves. Indonesia is supposed to be subject to a 32 percent reciprocal tariff, which took into effect early Wednesday. About hours later, Trump decided to postpone the tariff hikes after countries rushed to negotiate with the US. China, however, still gets slapped with a 125 percent tariff effective immediately. The time window had given Indonesia an opportunity to not only persuade the US into revising the 32 percent rate, but also sell more footwear before the tariffs return in July, senior economist Bhima Yudhistira said.

“It’s best for Indonesia to boost its US exports such as on footwear,” Bhima told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday, when asked what Indonesia could do over the next three months.

Indonesia is home to many factories responsible for the production of footwear giants like Adidas and Nike. The government claimed that the Indonesians made up 30 percent of Adidas and Nike’s global production workforce. The government also remained upbeat about the US-bound footwear exports, saying that Indonesian shoes would still maintain its popularity in the American market as they would not be subject to tariffs as steep as its competitors.

Senior minister Airlangga Hartarto recently revealed Indonesia was the third-largest footwear exporter to the US, selling $2.6 billion worth of shoes, just behind China ($10.3 billion) and Vietnam ($9.1 billion). The rates for China in the executive order on the “discounted” reciprocal tariffs stood at 34 percent. Not only did Trump exclude China from the tariff delay, the country now has to cope with a 125 percent levy. Fellow ASEAN member Vietnam is subject to a 49 percent tariff, much higher compared to that of Indonesia. 

“We are also negotiating with the US government so hopefully, we can reduce the [32 percent tariff]. We are selling our footwear at $15-20 a pair. [Once the tariff kicks in], the duty will be around $6. The impact of the tariffs are not as big as we had initially thought,”Airlangga told Indonesian businessmen earlier this week.

The Globe has reached out to the Foreign Affairs Ministry for comments. The Indonesian government has yet issued an official statement regarding the tariff relief at the time of writing. While the reciprocal levy gets delayed, a 10 percent baseline tariff for nearly all countries is still in force. 

“The 10 percent levy will of course affect [Indonesia’s trade], but not as big as the [impact of the] reciprocal tariffs,” Bhima said.

Throughout 2024, Indonesia posted nearly $38.3 billion in bilateral trade with the US. Indonesia exported $26.3 billion worth of goods to the US, thus giving the Southeast Asian country a $14.3 billion surplus that year, official figures showed.

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