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Indonesia wheat flour mills assoc to ramp up U.S. wheat imports
The deal also includes U.S. soybean, corn and cotton imports
State energy firm Pertamina to buy U.S. Exxon, Chevron products
By Stefanno Sulaiman
JAKARTA, July 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia will send its main negotiator to the U.S. on Monday ahead of Washington's deadline for tariff agreements on July 9, with the two countries also due to sign a $34 billion deal involving higher imports of U.S. wheat, soybean, corn, cotton and energy products.
Senior economic minister Airlangga Hartarto is due to go to the United States to oversee tariff talks on Monday, said Haryo Limanseto, spokesperson at the coordinating ministry for economic affairs.
The largest economy in Southeast Asia is facing a 32% tariff on its goods exports to the U.S.
Jakarta has offered to cut duties to near zero on the main goods it imports from the U.S., and it has also proposed U.S. investment in its critical minerals sector and offered to import more U.S. products.
Indonesia's wheat flour mills association signed on Monday an agreement worth around $1.25 billion with its U.S. counterparts to buy at least 1 million metric tons of U.S. wheat per year from 2026 until 2030, its chairman Franciscus Welirang, who is also Indofood director, told reporters.
"We as the private sector will back up the ongoing tariff negotiation," Welirang said, adding that for the rest of 2025 Indonesia will buy 800,000 tons of U.S. wheat.
The U.S. exported nearly 700,000 tons of wheat to Indonesia in 2024, making it the third-biggest export destination after Australia and Canada, data from the local association shows.
As well as wheat, a $34 billion memorandum of understanding (MoU) on U.S. soybean, corn, cotton and energy products, will be signed in the U.S. on Monday. Part of the deal is between Indonesia's state energy firm Pertamina [RIC:RIC:PERTM.UL] and Exxon XOM.N and Chevron CVX.N, said Pujo Setio, a senior official at the coordinating ministry for economic affairs.
Last week, Airlangga said the MoU would involve state carrier Garuda Indonesia GIAA.JK. Garuda's CEO said last week the firm was in talks with U.S. Boeing to buy up to 75 of its planes.
The United States is Indonesia's second-largest export market after China, with a total value of $28.1 billion in goods shipped to the United States in 2024, according to the U.S. Trade Representative. The Southeast Asian country ran a $17.9 billion goods trade surplus with the United States last year.
U.S. tariffs could reduce Indonesia's potential growth by 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has warned. The government has trimmed Indonesia's 2025 GDP forecast to a range of 4.7% to 5.0% from an earlier target of 5.2%.
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Additional reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe; Editing by Martin Petty, David Stanway and Hugh Lawson)
((Stefanno.Sulaiman@thomsonreuters.com;))