Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Official statistics showed Friday that the trade gap between Indonesia and the United States continued to widen to $8.57 billion in the first half of 2025, ahead of Washington's new tariffs.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) revealed that the US continued to make up the lion's share of Indonesia's surplus. The overall positive trade balance has increased from $6.45 billion in the same period last year. As for bilateral non-oil and gas trade alone, Indonesia's first-half surplus had jumped from $7.70 billion to $9.92 billion the following year.
"Our non-oil surplus [in the first half of 2025] with the US was largely driven by electrical machinery and equipment," Pudji Ismartini, a deputy at BPS, told a press conference in Jakarta.
The announcement came just a few hours after US President Donald Trump unleashed new tariff hikes that would take effect in seven days. Indonesia has been seeking a trade deal with the US as Trump frets about deficits, even threatening a 32 percent tariff on Jakarta's goods.
An initial 10 percent baseline tariff has been in place since early April. In Trump's updated slate of sweeping tariffs, Indonesian goods will officially be subject to a 19 percent tax, effective Aug. 7, the same rate as agreed in their trade deal.
Electrical machinery and equipment added about $2.19 billion to Indonesia's positive non-oil trade balance, followed by knitted apparel and accessories ($1.28 billion) and footwear ($1.27 billion). Parts of the figures came from the time when Indonesia's US-bound goods were already subject to the 10 percent universal tariff.
Pudji, however, said she still "needed to check the data" to assess how big an impact this tariff had on Indonesia's exports to the world's largest economy. "And also, not all commodities are subject to the [10 percent] tariff," Pudji said.
In exchange for a lower-than-promised tax, Indonesia has promised to increase its US imports, while letting American goods enter its market tariff-free. The deal includes $15 billion worth of American energy purchases and $4.5 billion of US farm product imports. Amidst such pledges, Indonesia has been importing more from the US over the past months, although its growth rate still lags behind Washington's top rival, China.
BPS reported Indonesia had imported $4.87 billion worth of American goods so far this year as of June, excluding oil and gas. This marked an increase compared to the $4.56 billion in imports the previous year. What Indonesia had bought from China, however, had jumped from $32.77 billion to $40 billion over the same period.