Indonesia’s agreement on reciprocal trade with the United States puts the country’s sovereignty at risk. 

Trade agreements are usually sold as instruments of prosperity. The language is familiar: market access, investment certainty, supply-chain integration, mutual growth. Yet the United States–Indonesia Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) belongs to a different category altogether. This is not merely a commercial pact. It is a structural redesign of the Indonesian state, negotiated under tariff pressure and wrapped in the vocabulary of partnership. The agreement was signed by the Presidents of Indonesia and the United States on 19 February 2026 and will enter into force 90 days after both countries submit written confirmation that all required domestic legal procedures—including consultations and ratification—have been completed.

At stake is not simply Indonesia’s export performance or tariff schedule. At stake is whether Southeast Asia’s largest economy will retain the sovereign right to determine how its minerals are processed, where its citizens’ data is stored, how halal standards are enforced, and whether industrial policy can still serve national development rather than foreign strategic priorities.

That is why the ART has triggered such an unusually visceral backlash in Jakarta. Nearly 80 civil society organisations and more than 65 academics have urged parliament to reject what they describe as a ‘shameful’ agreement that risks reducing Indonesia from a sovereign middle power into an economic subordinate within a US-designed system.

The scale of the asymmetry is striking. Under the agreement, Washington reduces tariffs on Indonesian exports from 32 per cent to 19 per cent, while granting zero-duty access to 1,819 Indonesian products, including palm oil, rubber, cocoa, coffee and spices. In return, Indonesia removes tariffs on more than 99 per cent of US imports and commits to purchasing roughly US$38.4 billion worth of American goods, including US$15 billion in energy commodities and US$4.5........

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