Goods Imports From China Skyrocket, Trade Minister Budi Denies Imbas Trump Tariffs

Minister of Trade Budi Santoso. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Trade (Mendag) Budi Santoso said the long spike in imports of goods from China, not necessarily due to the reciprocal tariff policy imposed by the President of the United States (US) Donald Trump, then resulted in transportation or market transfer of export countries.

The surge in Chinese goods imports was revealed in a report by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) earlier last week. In the BPS report, the value of China's non-oil and gas imports to Indonesia jumped to 53.71 percent on an annual basis throughout April 2025.

"There is no indication (transplication) yet. Because of this, the indications that have been transposed, the transition, we can control this through our SKA (Security Certificate). So there is no such indication yet," he said at the Office of the Ministry of Trade, Jakarta, Wednesday, June 4.

Even so, Budi acknowledged that the soaring imports of goods from China helped the trade balance deficit be depressed. He also said China was also the largest contribution to trading exports with Indonesia even though it was still a deficit.

For example, continued Budi, Indonesia's export performance to China was recorded at 60 billion US dollars last year. Meanwhile, the import value from China is around 70 billion US dollars, so that Indonesia's trade balance on China has a deficit.

"So indeed our trade with China is quite large. Our biggest export is also to China... There is a deficit, it goes up and down. But if there is no indication of it (transplication) yet," he said.

Previously, the Minister of Trade (Mendag) Budi Santoso opened his voice regarding the shrinking trade balance surplus in April 2025. In fact, this is quite significant and the lowest in the last 60 months.

Budi said there were a number of causes that made the trade balance surplus decrease. One of them is the Eid al-Fitr holiday which makes export activities a little late.

"So exports from January to April compared to last year have indeed increased by 6.65 percent. But March-April has decreased. After we analyzed the first one yesterday, in early April, it was still a Eid holiday. So there are still many holidays so exports are also reduced," said Budi at the Ministry of Trade Office, Jakarta, Wednesday, June 4.

In addition to domestic factors, continued Budi, global conditions have also decreased to affect Indonesia's export performance. One of them is the reciprocal tariff policy imposed by the United States Government (US) Donal Trump against a number of trade partner countries.

According to Budi, this condition makes market players both exporters and importers in various parts of the world still wait and see in making decisions.

Therefore, Budi said the phenomenon of shrinking the trade balance was not only experienced by Indonesia. He said a number of countries in ASEAN also experienced the same thing.

"Yesterday when we met friends from the Trade Minister in Kuala Lumpur during the ASEAN Summit, we also talked about the impact on each of them being very large. In fact, many exporters tend to be waiting," he said.

Budi said that not only exports to the United States were affected, but also exports to other countries had also slowed down due to the domino effect of uncertainty in the current global conditions.

"So, it's not just exports to America but exports to other countries are also waiting for each other. Moreover, now it seems that there is no clarity anymore. We are also still waiting for the second negotiation to be scheduled," he said.