Indonesia lobbies U.S. for special tariff
Indonesia lobbied visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to keep the Southeast Asian nation on a list of countries that receive preferential trade terms, its foreign and trade ministers have said.
“President Joko Widodo has delivered Indonesia’s hope that the U.S. will maintain the country’s GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) facility,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters after meeting Pompeo.
In April, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office said it was reviewing the eligibility of Indonesia, along with India and Kazakhstan, for the GSP based on concerns over compliance with services and investment criteria.
“Around 53 percent of the goods covered by the GSP are commodities with links to products the U.S. exports, while 35 percent are related to the production process of U.S. products,” Marsudi said.
Under the GSP, Indonesia gets reduced tariffs on about $2 billion worth of exports to the United States, including some agricultural, textile and timber products, the Indonesia’s employer’s association said.
Total exports to the United States were $17.8 billion data in 2017 from Indonesia’s trade ministry showed. Indonesia ran a $9.7 billion trade surplus with the United States last year.
Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said Indonesia has asked the United States to exempt its aluminum and steel products.
The minister said he and Marsudi had met U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in Washington in July and agreed to raise the value of annual U.S.-Indonesia trade to $50 billion. Lukita said Pompeo had agreed on the need to increase economic ties and increase the countries’ strategic partnership.
This is coming when U.S. and China are in a war of tariffs.
The United States and China implemented tariffs on $34 billion worth of each other’s goods in July. Washington is expected to soon implement tariffs on an additional $16 billion of Chinese goods, which China has already said it will match immediately.