Prabowo-Trump Signs ART, 1,819 Indonesian Products Free of Tariffs to the US

JAKARTA - The President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto and the President of the United States Donald Trump officially signed the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART).

The tariff agreement is contained in the document Implementation of the Agreement toward New Golden Age US-Indonesia Alliance which is the basis for implementing the Indonesia-US economic partnership.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said that a number of Indonesia's export flagship commodities now have duty-free access to the United States market, namely at least 1,819 tariff lines of products.

"In this ART, there are 1819 tariff posts for Indonesian products, both agricultural and industrial, including palm oil, coffee, cocoa, spices, rubber, electronic components including semiconductors, aircraft components, whose tariffs are 0 percent," Airlangga said in an online press conference, Friday, February 20.

He added that for textile and garment products, the United States also provides a zero percent tariff through the Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) scheme.

"Of course this provides benefits for 4 million workers in this sector, and if we count with families, this has a very significant impact on 20 million people in Indonesia," he said.

As part of the agreement, Airlangga added that Indonesia also provided zero-percent tariff facilities for a number of products from the United States, such as wheat and soybeans.

"So that the Indonesian people pay 0 percent for goods produced from soy beans or wheat, in this case noodles or in the form of tofu and tempe, so our people are not burdened with additional costs for raw materials that we import from the United States," he said.

He said Indonesia would implement strategic trade management to ensure that trade activities took place safely and were not misused for purposes other than those that had been set.

In addition, Airlangga added that the Government was also committed to providing ease in the import licensing process and product standardization, both for the industrial sector and companies from the United States.

Airlangga said that to ensure fair implementation, the two countries would form a Council of Trade and Investment forum which would be a forum for discussion if there was a spike in prices or an imbalance in the trade balance that exceeded the agreement.

"So all investment and trade issues will be discussed in the council if there is a higher increase and the country's trade balance. The goal is to secure a strong economic supply chain and respect the sovereignty of each country. This is part of the agreement," he explained.

Meanwhile, ART is scheduled to take effect 90 days after all legal processes in each country are completed, including consultations between the Indonesian Government and the DPR as well as internal procedures in the United States.