THE clock is ticking as a deadline nears for Indonesia to hash out a trade deal with the United States or risk punishing tariffs imposed on almost all Indo-nesian goods shipped to the world’s largest economy.
These are not your usual trade negotiations, where two or more countries come together as equals to reduce import tariffs on each other’s export goods. Instead, Washington unilaterally imposed so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries and is now seeking concessions to lift them.
