US President Donald Trump announced that Washington had sealed a trade deal with Indonesia on Tuesday.
The tariffs on imports from the Asian country will now be 19%, Trump said on his Truth Social platform, significantly below the previously threatened 32%.
“They are going to pay 19% and we are going to pay nothing,” said Trump to reporters about the agreement, before boarding the presidential helicopter on Tuesday. He claimed that American goods sent to the Southeast Asian country would face no tariffs.
In a separate social media post, Trump said, “Great deal, for everybody, just made with Indonesia”. He added that he dealt with the country’s president directly.
“As part of the agreement, Indonesia has committed to purchasing $15 billion in US Energy, $4.5 billion in American Agricultural Products, and 50 Boeing Jets, many of them 777s,” said the US President in his Truth Social post.
The Indonesian government has yet to confirm this agreement.
Trump also said Indonesia was “very strong” on copper. But it was unclear what role copper played in any agreement, as he has separately taxed the commodity at 50% starting on 1 August.
How Big Pharma is about to be tariffed
Trump also said he would “probably” announce tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs at the end of the month, and that levies on semiconductors could come soon as well.
The president said he would start at a lower tariff rate and give pharma companies a year to build domestic factories before they face higher import tax rates. Trump said computer chips would face a similar style of tariffs.
As the EU is negotiating a deal with the US, the pharmaceutical sector is eagerly watching every move that might impact the industry in the bloc, as more than one-third of EU pharma exports are sent to the US.
US tariffs of over 10% on smaller nations, including those in Africa and the Caribbean
President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he also plans to place tariffs of over 10% on smaller countries, including nations in Africa and the Caribbean.
“We’ll probably set one tariff for all of them,” Trump said, adding that it could be “a little over 10% tariff” on goods from at least 100 nations.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick interjected that the nations with goods being taxed at these rates would be in Africa and the Caribbean. These are countries that generally do relatively modest levels of trade with the US and would be fairly insignificant for addressing Trump’s goals of reducing trade imbalances with the rest of the world.
This month, the president has been posting letters to roughly two dozen countries and the European Union, outlining tariff rates to be charged starting 1 August.
The countries targeted so far have generally been threatened with tax rates close to the 2 April levies announced by the US president. The initial announcement of historically high US import taxes caused financial markets to panic and led to the creation of a 90-day negotiating period that was set to expire on 9 July, before an extension into August.
US launches investigation into Brazil’s trade practices
Meanwhile, this week, the United States has launched an investigation into trading practices by Brazil, labelling them as “unfair”. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement that Brazil’s approach was harming American companies, particularly in the fields of digital trade and electronic payment services.
The White House has accused Brazil of harming US exports by offering more preferential tariffs to “certain globally competitive trade partners”. The probe is also looking into the country’s anti-corruption measures, intellectual property protection and illegal deforestation, and tariffs on US ethanol exports.
“Brazil has walked away from its willingness to provide virtually duty-free treatment for US ethanol and instead now applies a substantially higher tariff on US ethanol exports,” said the statement.
These accusations follow Washington’s threat of a 50% tariff on goods imports from Brazil from 1 August, if there is no agreement on a trade deal.
In his letter, informing the country about the new tariff rate, the US President also accused the government of the country of undertaking a “witch hunt” against former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro is currently on trial for allegedly attempting a coup to overturn the 2022 election results.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva warned of retaliatory tariffs on the US if Trump imposes a 50% levy, risking a trade war.
