Tariff truce raises Jakarta’s bargaining power

Trade boost: People sit near street food vendors in Jakarta. Raden says the US-China de-escalation could translate into lower reciprocal tariffs worldwide, “because the main cause of the tariff war is the competition between those two big countries”. — AFP

JAKARTA: The government views the apparent de-escalation in a trade war between the United States and China as an opportunity to demand open and fair trade in its own negotiations with a highly protectionist US administration.

Washington and Beijing announced in a joint statement on Monday that they had agreed to bring triple-digit import tariffs on each other’s export goods down to two figures and continue negotiations.