Indonesia makes trade concessions to the US before talks

Indonesia made a series of concessions to the U.S. on Tuesday. These included reducing taxes on steel and electronic goods, in advance of negotiations with Washington regarding President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Next week, the largest economy in South East Asia will send a delegation of high-level officials to the United States to seek a deal that would ease the impact on Wednesday's 32% tariff.

Airlangga Hartarto will lead Indonesia's delegation to the U.S. and said that Indonesia intends to purchase liquefied gas, liquefied gas natural, and soybeans as part of its negotiations.

He spoke at a meeting attended by the President Prabowo, top ministers of the country, the governor of Bank Indonesia, the chief financial authority, and businessmen to discuss the response to U.S. Tariffs.

Sri Mulyani said that Indonesia will lower import taxes from the United States on steel, mining equipment and health products to 0%-5%, from rates between 5-10%.

She said that Indonesia would lower its import tax on electronics, mobile phones and Laptops from all countries to 0.5% instead of 2.5%.

Indrawati stated that Indonesia could replace Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand as the source of certain exports to the United States, under the new tariff regime.

According to Indonesian data, Indonesia had a trade surplus of $16,8 billion with the U.S. last year. The U.S. was Indonesia's third largest export destination and will receive shipments valued at $26.3 billion by 2024.

Electronics, apparel and clothing and footwear are among the main products that Indonesia exports to America.

The government had also said that it was discussing plans to increase the imports of U.S. products, such as buying components for a refinery project, and examining the possibility of reducing the local content rule. (Reporting and writing by Stefanno Sulaiman, Stanley Widianto and Gibran Peshimam. Editing and rewriting by John Mair, Hugh Lawson and John Mair)

(source: Reuters)