Suspected Transhipment Products Blamed for Indonesia's Solar Panels Hit with 104.38 Percent Tariff in US
JAKARTA – The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has responded to the imposition of countervailing duties of 104.38 percent against Indonesian solar panel products by the United States government.
Deputy Minister of ESDM Yuliot Tanjung stated that the ministry has conducted an examination of the policy.
He noted that products subject to the tariff, which fall outside the provisions of the Indonesia-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement (ART), are suspected to be transhipment products.
Products merely pass through Indonesia before being shipped to their final destination and are not fully manufactured domestically.
“I have already conducted an examination of products subject to tariffs that do not conform to the ART. It turned out they are merely transhipment, just labelled in Indonesia,” Yuliot said at the ESDM Ministry in Jakarta on Friday (27 February 2026).
He explained that the Directorate General of New, Renewable Energy, and Energy Conservation (EBTKE) will conduct a further investigation of the entire solar panel industry in Indonesia.
The review will be carried out to distinguish between companies that only engage in labelling, conduct transhipment practices, and those that genuinely undertake full manufacturing domestically.
“So for each solar panel industry, the EBTKE Director General will conduct a further investigation. So which ones are labelling, which are principally transhipment in nature, and which are full domestic manufacturing,” he said.
Yuliot stressed that the government will fight for the application of tariffs in accordance with the ART provisions.
“We will actually fight for this in accordance with the tariff regulated in the ART. Yes, if it is indeed 15 percent, then the maximum is 15 percent. It should not exceed 15 percent,” he said.
According to Reuters, the policy was adopted in response to allegations of subsidies received by the solar panel industry in the three countries. Washington believes the subsidies put American-made products at a competitive disadvantage in the domestic market.