President Donald Trump said the US would impose a 19 per cent tariff on goods from Indonesia under a new agreement and said more deals were in the works.
The pact with the relatively minor US trading partner is among the handful struck so far by the Trump administration ahead of an August 1 deadline for tariffs on most US imports to rise again.
It came as the top US trading partner – the European Union – readied retaliatory measures should talks with Washington fail.
Trump outlined an Indonesia deal similar to a pact struck recently with Vietnam, with a flat tariff on exports to the US roughly double the current 10 per cent and no levies placed on US exports going there. It also included a penalty rate for so-called transshipments of goods from China via Indonesia, and a commitment to buy some US goods.
“They are going to pay 19 per cent and we are going to pay nothing … we will have full access into Indonesia,” Trump said outside the Oval Office.
Trump later said on Indonesia had agreed to buy $US15 billion ($23 billion) of US energy products, $US4.5 billion of American farm products, and 50 Boeing jets.
Reuters
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