Tariffs are often dismissed as technicalities, but the oscillation of US duties on Indonesian products reveals a deeper reality. Once a leading voice of the Non-Aligned Movement, Indonesia continues to struggle to assert its agency in today’s fragmented world order.
Initially set at 32 per cent, threatened to rise to 42 per cent, then “compromised” at 19 per cent, Jakarta rushed to proclaim the result of tariff negotiations with US President Donald Trump to be a diplomatic triumph. Yet behind the supposed reprieve lay a heavy price: a US$15 billion LNG commitment, US$4.5 billion in Midwest grain and soy imports, and 50 wide-body Boeing aircraft whose eventual operators remain unclear.
A tariff discount purchased through new dependencies is not a victory. It is the same old pattern, repackaged.
