Indonesia Submits List of Defences Against US Trade Investigation Claims
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The Indonesian government is ready to submit a list of defences against trade-related allegations raised by the United States through Section 301 of the Trade Act 1974.
The unbalanced trade accusations relate to two main issues, namely alleged practices of creating excess production capacity (structural excess capacity) and the use of forced labour.
After attending a coordination meeting on preparing the list of defences at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Trade Minister Budi Santoso stated that the draft of the defences is now ready and will be submitted to the United States (US) side on 15 April 2026.
“On the 15th, we will submit it, and I think everything is fine,” said Budi Santoso at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs office in Jakarta on Monday (13/4/2026).
Regarding the issue related to structural excess capacity, Budi said the government has prepared a response that production capacity in Indonesia’s industry has never exceeded demand. In other words, production is carried out in accordance with the mechanism of global market demand.
“Why our policies do not cause structural excess capacity is because our manufacturing production is produced according to market demand, market-driven,” Budi emphasised.
If structural excess capacity is questioned by the US because Indonesia’s trade balance with the US has always been in surplus, Budi considers it misguided. This is because US society indeed needs a large supply from Indonesian industrial production.
“Well, Indonesia’s surplus to America is actually due to the difference in our economic structures, because we export to America precisely because of America’s large domestic demand for Indonesia,” he said.
Therefore, he stressed that on the 15th, the government will promptly respond to all US allegations. Following that, a public hearing session in the US is scheduled for the next day.
“Like trade remedies, there is a submission, then a public hearing; we will follow it. We must carry out the defence that we often do when there are trade remedies from other countries,” Budi explained.
Meanwhile, regarding the forced labour allegation, Labour Minister Yassierli, after the coordination meeting with the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, explained that the government is also ready to provide a response on 15 April 2026.
“We have always been very good in terms of human rights enforcement regulations, so there is no such thing. And we never tolerate forced labour in our production system, and we also have supervision and so on. So, alhamdulillah, it was completed earlier; now it’s just preparing the final documents,” Yassierli emphasised.