Govt Seeks Reasonable Import Tariffs for Indonesian Solar Panels Under ART

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - The Indonesian government is striving to protect the national solar panel industry after the United States (US) imposed high import tariffs on Indonesian products.

The Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has confirmed that domestically produced solar panels should not be subject to import duties of up to several hundred percent.

Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Yuliot, emphasized that the government is striving to ensure that tariffs on Indonesian products comply with the provisions of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) scheme.

“If the (tariff) is 15 percent, then it should be a maximum of 15 percent. It cannot exceed 15 percent,” said Yuliot at the Ministry’s office in Jakarta on Friday, February 27, 2026, as quoted by Antara.

He explained that the inspection results showed that the solar panels subject to very high tariffs were not manufactured in Indonesia. “They are only products in transhipment and labeling conducted in Indonesia,” said Yuliot.

Transhipment refers to the shipment of goods from the originating country to Indonesia to obtain required documents before re-exporting them to the destination country. This practice is often used to avoid reciprocal tariffs.

To ensure clarity about the origin of the products, Yuliot instructed the Director General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, Eniya Listiani Dewi, to remap the solar panels according to their place of production. This step aims to protect the national industry from the impact of the US tariff policy.

The US President Donald Trump imposed import tariffs of up to several hundred percent on solar panels from Indonesia, India, and Laos, based on the US Department of Commerce's recommendation on February 25.

The provisional tariff for India reached 125.87 percent, while the countervailing duty for Indonesia ranged from 86 to 143 percent, and for Laos, 81 percent.

The US Department of Commerce assessed that products from the three countries received unfair government subsidies. The Bloomberg report said the subsidies allowed exporters to sell at lower prices and compete with US manufacturers.

India, Indonesia, and Laos accounted for 57 percent of US solar panel imports in the first half of 2025. Imports from India in 2024 totaled USD 792.6 million, a ninefold increase from 2022.

The tariff was imposed following complaints from US manufacturers. In a lawsuit filed in July 2025, they accused Chinese manufacturers of flooding the US market with cheap products manufactured in the three Asian countries, including Indonesia. ***