Jakarta: Indonesia favors its national interests in its ongoing negotiations on American prices, its higher economic minister and negotiator said the best negotiator with the United States on Friday, April 25.
Airlangga Hartarto, delegation head, and finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati have been in the United States since last week, merchanting the 32% proposed prices that the United States wishes to impose on Indonesia. These prices have been suspended for 90 days.
“In the negotiation process, Indonesia favors national interests while encouraging the strengthening of bilateral relations with us,” he said at an online press conference.
Last year, Indonesia reported a trade surplus of US $ 14.3 billion with the United States
The Minister refrained from sharing specific details on negotiations, but said that discussions included energy supply, access to the American market for Indonesian goods, deregulation in Indonesia and critical sharing of minerals and technology for agriculture, health care and renewable sectors.
The two countries have also discussed the national payment system for Indonesia and QR code standards, which, according to the United States, is an obstacle to its payment companies. Airlangga indicated that Indonesia is open to foreign operators such as American companies Visa and Mastercard. A two -week calendar was defined to discuss technical details.
Indonesia has proposed to increase its imports from the United States up to $ 19 billion in the US suppliers for goods such as wheat, soy, soy liquefied and gross oil gas. Jakarta also proposed to reduce non -pricing obstacles and proposed tax reductions for American goods.
Such a proposal would not be a “null game” for other business partners, said Airlangga, promising Indonesia would seek to buy other products in affected countries.
Indonesia hopes that its rapid decision to negotiate, instead of retaliation, will be rewarded by President Donald Trump. His delegation was informed that although Trump remained the final decision maker, he could promote the “first movers,” said Sri Mulyani.
Sri Mlyani said that she “compares the grades” with other countries affected by heavy American prices on their negotiations, while the touch of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank spring meetings this week.
She added that Washington had asked members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (Anase) of their response as a block of American trade policy.
The Indonesian delegation met senior American officials and businessmen in sectors such as semiconductors, as well as business leaders like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing.
Sri Mlyani warned that American prices and their impact on global economic growth on Thursday could affect the economic expansion of Indonesia. However, it provides for regular growth of 5% this year, only slightly below the government's objective of 5.2%.
