At the Bisnis Indonesia Mid-year Challenges 2025 event here on Tuesday, Secretary of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs Susiwijono Moegiarso noted that under the new arrangement, the US has lowered import tariffs on Indonesian products from 32 percent to 19 percent.
The deal is expected to save around 3 million jobs in the textile industry.
According to Moegiarso, the deal, which was reached in July 2025, came at the right time, considering the seasonal nature of the textile industry.
He explained that without certainty on tariffs, many textile producers in Indonesia would have struggled to keep jobs while trying to secure spring orders.
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“Orders for Indonesian exports could have shifted to several other countries that already have tariff certainty, for instance, Vietnam,” he added.
He further said that the deal has positioned Indonesia as one of the countries with competitive import tariffs in the US market, providing an advantage amid the fierce global competition in the labor-intensive industries.
Earlier, President Prabowo Subianto and US President Donald Trump reached a deal, under which Indonesia will pay a 19-percent tariff on every product it exports to the US, while US exports to Indonesia will be exempt from tariff and non-tariff barriers.
Under the deal, Indonesia will also purchase US$15 billion worth of energy, import US$4.5 billion of agricultural products, and buy 50 Boeing aircraft from the US.
Indonesia is currently continuing further negotiations with the US, focusing on reducing the import tariffs on several strategic Indonesian commodities, such as coffee and cacao.
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Translator: Bayu Saputra, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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