Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported Monday that Indonesia's trade surplus with the US had grown amid the ongoing negotiations on Washington's tariffs.
Indonesia is currently in talks with the US government in hopes that the latter will slash its 32 percent reciprocal tariff. After July 9, the US will begin charging nearly all its trading partners steep tariffs – which differ by country – as President Donald Trump wants to improve Washington's trade imbalance. A 10 percent universal levy is already in place on imports coming to the American market.
Indonesia is giving itself a deadline of 60 days to reach an agreement on the tariffs. As Jakarta tries to appease Trump by promising to buy more American agricultural commodities, the gap in bilateral trade grows, according to the latest official statistics.
BPS data showed that Indonesia ran a $1.57 billion surplus in non-oil and gas trade with the US in February 2025. The numbers jumped to $1.98 billion the following month.
A surplus means that Indonesia's exports to the US exceed what it imports. Electrical machinery and equipment made up the lion's share of the surplus in March, adding $465 million to the positive trade balance. Followed by footwear ($239.7 million). Indonesia saw a $238.7 million surplus when trading animal/vegetable fats and oil, which would include its top commodity, palm oil.
"Indonesia's total surplus with the US hit $4.32 billion in the first quarter of 2025," BPS' head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti told a press briefing.
The said figures, which also took into account oil and gas trade, marked quite a significant jump from the $3.61 billion surplus recorded in the same quarter in 2024. This also means that bilateral trade has become more imbalanced under the Trump 2.0 administration. The businessman-turned-politician returned to the White House on Jan. 20.
"The US – alongside India and the Philippines – has been the biggest contributor to our trade surplus over the past 10 years. Our highest-ever surplus with the US was $16.57 billion in 2022," Amalia said.
BPS' latest data only encompassed the trade figures up to the end of March. Trump announced his punitive tariff plans in early April. BPS will release April's trade statistics next month. The statistics agency also revealed that Indonesia had run a 59-month surplus streak in overall trade since May 2020.
Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/business/indonesias-surplus-with-us-soars-amid-tariff-negotiation