US President Donald Trump announced a new trade deal with Indonesia on Tuesday. As per the agreement, the nation will buy 50 Boeing jets from the United States. The agreement was reached after Trump spoke to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
Trump told reporters hours after announcing the deal on Truth Social deal that it requires the US to put a 19 percent tariff on Indonesian goods while calling for Indonesia to impose no tariffs on American exports.
In a later post on Truth Social, he announced that the deal was “finalised.” As of Tuesday afternoon, though, the Indonesian government had not yet made any announcement of the same.
Trump added that Indonesia is committed to purchasing “$15 Billion Dollars in U.S. Energy, $4.5 Billion Dollars in American Agricultural Products, and 50 Boeing Jets, many of them 777’s.”
Before leaving for a summit in Pittsburg, the president said that Indonesia is “known for high-quality copper, which we’ll be using.” If Trump follows through on his promise to impose a 50 percent tariffs on all copper imports on August 1, then domestic copper may be subject to reduced charges or no tariffs at all.
The US Commerce Department data shows that Indonesia shipped $20 million worth of copper to the US last year, but that is significantly less than the $6 billion and $4 billion that the two largest suppliers, Chile and Canada, respectively, sent to the US.
“No tariffs there; they pay tariffs here. Switching the asymmetry our way,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.
A request for response by CNN was not immediately answered by Indonesian government representatives.
Indonesia is America’s 23rd top trading partner, according to data from the US Commerce Department last year. Indonesia exported $28 billion worth of merchandise to the US. The two most popular items purchased by Americans were clothing and shoes. While $10 billion worth of goods were imported last year from the US, the top two being oilseeds and grain along with oil and gas.
Meanwhile, in terms of negotiating a trade deal, Trump claimed that India is “working along the same line.”
Trump halted so-called “reciprocal” tariffs in April after temporarily imposing a 32 percent tariff on goods from India. For the last three months, nations that were supposed to be subject to those tariffs have been charged a minimum 10 percent tariff. The deadline for it is August 1.
“Great deal, for everybody, just made with Indonesia. I dealt directly with their highly respected President. DETAILS TO FOLLOW!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.