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 trade tariff agreement was set out in a document entitled Implementation of the Agreement toward New Golden Age US-Indonesia Alliance which became the basis for implementing cooperation between the two countries.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto explained that Indonesia and the United States agreed to strengthen economic collaboration through the establishment of the Council of Trade and Investment.
He added that this council will be an official forum to discuss trade and investment issues between the two countries.
According to him, through the forum, every issue related to the increase in tariffs that is considered excessive or has the potential to disrupt the trade balance of the two countries will be discussed first before taking further steps.
"The purpose and vision of the agreement is to realize shared economic prosperity, strong supply chains and respect for the sovereignty of each country. So I underline respect for the sovereignty of each country as part of the agreement that is being handled," he said in a press conference, Friday, February 20.
He explained that since Trump's initial announcement on April 2, 2025, the Indonesian government had sent four tariff negotiation letters in April, June, July, and August 2025. As well as about 90 percent of the documents submitted by Indonesia were approved by the United States and then included in the ART agreement.
"During this period, Indonesia visited Washington DC 4 times, then 7 rounds of negotiations and more than 9 times of in-person and virtual discussions with the USTR," he explained.
Airlangga added that as a result, the United States lowered the reciprocal tariff for Indonesia as stated in the joint statement.
He said that unlike ART agreements with a number of other countries, the agreement with Indonesia does not contain clauses outside of economic cooperation.
"Unlike various ART agreements with other countries, the United States agreed to repeal non-economic cooperation articles, including those related to the development of nuclear reactors, then related to the South China Sea policy related to defense and border security, so that our pure ART is related to trade," he explained.
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