New analysis of US-Indonesia trade deal in light of repealed tariffs
One day after the Trump administration signed a sweeping “reciprocal” trade deal with Indonesia, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — the very tariffs used to pressure Indonesia into the agreement.
Facing the threat of a 32% tariff, Indonesia made significant concessions across digital policy, agriculture, health standards, and critical minerals in exchange for a 19% “reciprocal” tariff rate. With the IEEPA tariffs invalidated and replaced with a 10-15% temporary tariff, the future of the Indonesia deal and other Agreements on Reciprocal Trade (ARTs) is in question.
New analysis from Public Citizen suggests that may be for the best, as winners from this deal once again are Big Tech CEOs and other large corporate interests, not the U.S. or Indonesian people.
Under the agreement, Indonesia would be required to:
- Eliminate tax, privacy, and accountability regulations on Big Tech;
- Accept without question U.S. health and safety certifications on food, medicines, autos, and more;
- Undermine development and industrial policies that have helped the country’s mineral wealth benefit its local economy;
- Threaten access to affordable medicines to comply with a list of complaints by Big Pharma; and
- Hand over its sovereignty by committing to change key positions at international fora and in its relations with other countries to align with U.S. priorities.
“This so-called ‘deal’ is a one-sided neocolonial trap that locks Indonesia into binding, economy-wide concessions to benefit large U.S. corporate interests,” said Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch director at Public Citizen. Especially now that the legal basis for the tariffs that drove the negotiations has been struck down, the American public should join the people of Indonesia — and all the countries bullied into ARTs — to demand our governments reject these illegitimate deals.”
