The Impact of Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs on Indonesia

After the reciprocal tariffs on imported goods from 180 countries were officially announced by US President Donald Trump on April 2, 2025, what is the impact on the Indonesian economic sector? Concretely, Indonesia is subject to an import tariff of 32 percent and throughout the last five days the impact of the US reciprocal tariff announcement on the Indonesian financial sector has been felt. At the beginning of this week, Monday, April 7, 2025, the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar touched 16,904 thousand rupiah per US dollar (Antara News Data).

Source: pexels/Karolina Kaboompics

This makes the rupiah the weakest in history after the financial crisis that occurred in 1998 where at that time the rupiah exchange rate touched 16,900. This is the real impact of the tariff war declared by Donald Trump on the Indonesian economy. It is time for Indonesia to clean up, strengthen the weakest side of the national government system such as removing obstacles to business activities and investment by really committing to deregulation, stopping corrupt behaviour and all its derivatives. Indonesia also needs to expand its market among global south countries, especially among BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) member countries.