The Indonesia–US Reciprocal Trade Agreement (Agreement on Reciprocal Trade/ART) includes a US$33 billion purchase commitment, which is likely to put pressure on Indonesia’s trade balance.
The figure reportedly covers imports of US energy products, such as crude oil, gasoline, LPG, and coal, valued at US$15 billion, as well as the procurement of 50 Boeing aircraft, valued at US$13.5 billion.
The National Coordinator of Publish What You Pay Indonesia, Aryanto Nugroho, assessed that the commitment goes beyond a tariff agreement and creates long-term risks to economic independence. He described the deal as a “gateway” to the exploitation of critical minerals.
“The extension of mining permits and oil and gas concessions reinforces a pattern of long-term ‘concession sell-offs.’ In practice, this grants exploitation rights to US corporations until mineral reserves are fully depleted under a life-of-mine scheme. Once the reserves are exhausted, the public will inherit only permanent environmental damage without control over the strategic assets that have been drained. It would be highly detrimental to Indonesia in the long term if natural resource sovereignty is sacrificed for ‘tariff reductions’ that are ‘non-reciprocal,’” Aryanto emphasized in a written statement on Sunday (22/2/2026).
He also highlighted the mandatory ethanol blending policy in gasoline, which would allow ethanol imports from the United States with a potential 0% tariff as long as domestic production remains insufficient. According to him, the policy risks undermining incentives to develop the local ethanol industry.
Without transparency mechanisms such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Aryanto argued that the agreement could widen the trade deficit and prolong dependence on energy imports from the United States.
Source: Warta Ekonomi