WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he has struck a deal with Indonesia — without providing specifics of the agreement — a week after threatening steeper tariffs on the Southeast Asian country.
“Great deal, for everybody, just made with Indonesia,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, saying he dealt with the country’s president directly. “DETAILS TO FOLLOW!!!”
Indonesia is one of the United States’ top 25 trade partners, with the two countries trading more than $38 billion in goods in 2024, according to the Commerce Department. The US trade deficit with Indonesia totalled $17.9 billion last year.
Trump’s post on Indonesia closely resembles his July 2 announcement that the US reached a trade deal with Vietnam.
Trump’s initial message about Vietnam was also short on details, though he declared in a follow-up post that the terms included a 20 percent tariff on Vietnamese imports.
Vietnamese officials were reportedly surprised by Trump’s description of their preliminary deal with the US.
As of July 10, the Vietnamese government still has not formally accepted part of the deal Trump touted, Politico reported.
The Trump administration has been under pressure to finalise trade pacts with other economies after promising a flurry of deals as countries sought to avoid the president’s tariff threats.
But Washington has so far only unveiled deals with Britain and Vietnam, alongside an agreement to temporarily lower tit-for-tat levies with China.
Last week, Trump renewed his threat of a 32 percent levy on Indonesian goods, saying in a letter to the country’s leadership that this level would take effect August 1.
Trump sent similar letters to roughly two dozen trading partners this month, including Canada, Japan and Brazil, setting blanket tariff rates ranging from 20 percent up to 50 percent, as well as a 50 percent tariff on copper.
The August 1 deadline gives the targeted countries time to negotiate agreements that could lower the threatened tariffs.
Some investors and economists have also noted Trump’s pattern of backing off his tariff threats.
Trump in April imposed a 10 percent tariff on almost all US trading partners, while announcing plans to hike this level for dozens of economies, including the European Union and Indonesia.
But he recently postponed the deadline for these steeper duties to kick in, from July 9 to August 1.
