JAKARTA - Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Susiwijono Moegiarso emphasized that the Government had sent a letter to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) asking for clarity regarding the implementation of tariffs from the Indonesian side.
According to him, if based on the practice of trading partner countries, there is a regulation that regulates the implementation.
"We are currently submitting letters to our friends at USTR. How is the implementation? Because in other countries, America's trading partner countries. It means that there must be regulations. Meanwhile, we don't have any regulations yet," he told the media crew, Friday, August 8.
Susiwijono emphasized that there should be a first signing of a trade agreement so that there is a legal basis for determining the rules in the country.
"For the basis here, we make the rules. So yesterday there was no such thing, so we asked the USTR what it was like," he said.
He added that the basic rules for determining tariffs are under the authority of the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani which will be stated in the Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) if there are changes or tariff adjustments through regulations.
"Well, if that's the case, there must be a change through the Minister of Finance's regulation. Because the tariff is the determination by the Minister of Finance. This is what we are continuing to communicate with USTR," he said.
Susiwijono explained that 19 percent of the reciprocal tariff for Indonesia had been applied in the US as of August 7.
"We have been treated according to yesterday's executive order. That's 7 days after the executive order took effect, it's the 31st (July). So the due date is 7 (August) at 12 o'clock America there," he explained.
He added that the 19 percent tariff imposed for shipment arrived in the United States on August 7. Meanwhile, shipments arriving before that date are not subject to the tariff
"So the point is that the implementation there has come into effect," he added.
Previously, Susiwijono said that although the reciprocal rate from the United States had been set at 19 percent, there was still room for negotiations for several certain commodities.
Susi explained that Indonesia is working on several superior products such as CPO (crude palm oil), coffee, cocoa, nickel and other agricultural products that can be subject to a 0 percent tariff because it is very much needed by the United States and cannot be produced efficiently there.
"There is still room for negotiations there. There are several of our commodity products whose terms are America's most needed, cannot be produced there, but are very reliable when exported from Indonesia. We negotiate that the tariff is 0 percent," he told the media crew, Friday, July 18.
"We are negotiating so that tariffs for some products can be reduced by 0 percent, because our exports are very reliable and needed by the US market," he added.
Susiwijono explained that of the total 11,552 HS (Harmonized System) tariff posts, around 11,474 posts or 99 percent had been charged a 0 percent import rate to Indonesia.
According to him, this is in line with the free trade scheme which is also applied in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) agreement.
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He added that with ASEAN countries through the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement, more than 99 percent of products had been subject to a 0 percent tariff.
Susiwijono explained that the tariff imposed by the US 19 percent to Indonesia cannot be compared directly to the 0 percent tariff from other countries.
According to him, the tariff scheme imposed by the United States on Indonesia is actually still lower than other countries which caused a trade deficit for the US.
"Compared to all countries that have a deficit impact on America, we are the lowest. Among all ASEAN countries, for the deficit, we are the lowest. Except for Singapore, the America has a surplus to Singapore. It has a baseline of 10 percent," he explained.
He added that Indonesia's import tariffs are still very competitive, even now its position is still the lowest among countries that make America a deficit.
Susiwijono said that negotiations were still ongoing and the final list of commodities that would be fought for to get a 0 percent tariff.
"Now the commodity groups may still increase. We don't have a definite list yet, we will submit it to them," he concluded.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
