


President Trump revealed new details surrounding his finalized trade deal with Indonesia, announcing on Tuesday that the country will remove all tariffs and “99 percent” of its trade barriers on the U.S., while the U.S will agree to tariff Indonesian goods at 19 percent, a lower rate than the White House threatened in April.
“In addition, Indonesia will supply the United States with their precious Critical Minerals, as well as sign BIG Deals, worth Tens of Billions of Dollars, to purchase Boeing Aircraft, American Farm products, and American Energy,” Trump said in a social media statement announcing the deal.
According the White House, the deal aims to crack down on the country’s so-called nontariff trade barriers – another term for the foreign import regulations that White House officials say block fair market access from U.S. companies. As part of the negotiation, the U.S. will also invoke a 40 percent tariff on any goods with parts that are primarily manufactured in countries with higher tariffs and are routed through Indonesia. The purpose of the 40 percent transshipment tariff is to avoid countries’ efforts to ship goods to the U.S. through countries with lower tariff jurisdictions.
The deal means the U.S will lower Indonesia’s forthcoming August 1 tariff rate from its scheduled 32 percent rate down to 19 percent, a lopsided tariff rate that the administration claims will create a tariff surplus with the country. “What we’re doing here is we’re expanding market access where Indonesia will have a higher tariff than they started with on January 20, but a lower one than they had on April 2,” a senior administration official said ahead of the announcement. The official claimed that the new deal with Indonesia is “worth at least $50 billion” to the U.S. in new market access combined with the White House’s forecasts of Indonesian companies’ forthcoming purchases of American goods, including farm products and Boeing aircraft.
Also on Tuesday, Trump announced a similar deal with the Philippines. “We concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs. The Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff,” Trump said in a statement following his White House meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Tuesday’s trade developments follow recent deals with Vietnam and Britain – as well as a trading truce with China — and comes days before the White House’s new August 1 deadline for imposing reciprocal tariffs on countries that share, in the administration’s view, an unfair trade relationship with the U.S. Dozens of countries have spent recent weeks racing to negotiate trade deals before the administration’s new reciprocal tariffs are scheduled to take effect.
White House officials sought to portray Tuesday’s Indonesia deal as a major economic victory for the U.S. amid the administration’s efforts to drastically restructure American trade relationships and eliminate the U.S.’s trade deficit, which the Trump administration characterizes as a national emergency.
Ahead of Trump’s Tuesday afternoon agreement with Jakarta, senior White House officials touted the deal’s crackdown on Indonesia’s regulatory trade barriers as a major win for the U.S. As part of the agreement, Indonesia will agree to stop pre-shipment inspection and verification requirements on imports of U.S. farm goods, accept U.S. federal motor vehicle safety standards for imported U.S. vehicles, remove export controls on critical minerals, and exempt U.S. companies from local content requirements, according to officials.
The country will also accept U.S. Federal Drug Administration certificates and marketing authorization for pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
“The companies that make medical devices and pharmaceuticals have high cost in terms of research and development over many years, and they can recoup a return for investment on these expenses once they’re able to get marketing authorization and certification. And these can take many years in any country,” a senior administration official told reporters. “But now Indonesia has agreed that they will accept this, avoiding kind of a double process for those things, so that the Indonesian people can obtain pharmaceuticals and medical devices sooner, and U.S. companies can have fair market access.”