Trump’s Asian Trade Deals Put Americans First

President Donald J. Trump’s historic trade deals with Japan and Indonesia are big wins for American businesses, workers, consumers, and the overall U.S. economy.  

The new agreements with our critical Asian trading partners build on the successful deals already signed with the United Kingdom, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and set the stage for even more winning to come. 

Most Americans would be shocked to learn just how badly we’ve been ripped off under the old tariff regimes. Take Indonesia as just one example. Under the old framework, Southeast Asia’s largest economy charged an average applied tariff of 8 percent on American goods, more than double the average applied tariff of 3.3 percent imposed by the United States on their goods sold here. Last year, the United States ran a $17.9 billion trade deficit with the Southeast Asian nation, due to these imbalanced tariffs and other non-tariff barriers to trade.   

Thanks to President Trump’s landmark trade deal, Indonesian companies will now pay the United States a reciprocal tariff rate of 19%, and drop almost all of its tariffs on Americans goods. That provides American businesses with the opportunity to be competitive in Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world and one of the fastest growing economies in the G20.  

“President Trump’s aggressive trade strategy is restoring balance and fairness for America’s farmers, manufacturers, and innovators, and this new deal with Indonesia is another big win,” explains House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith. “Indonesia’s commitment to pull down barriers to our agricultural products, to eliminate red tape on our automobile exports, and expand access to critical minerals, is a direct result of President Trump delivering on his promise to put America first.”

Of critical importance, the Trump trade deal with Indonesia includes strengthening “Rules of Origin.” During my time as a member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party, we heard testimony about how China frequently reroutes merchandise through other Indo-Pacific countries to change tags and avoid tariffs.

Beyond tariffs, non-tariff barriers have been another major burden on U.S. companies seeking to sell on the international market. In Japan, U.S. companies face a gauntlet of regulatory hurdles, licensing burdens, punitive restrictions. For example,  Japan has required some foreign companies in specific sectors “to demonstrate prior experience in Japan” – a blatant Catch-22 designed to stifle U.S. competition. How can American companies prove experience in a market they’re barred from entering?

If all this winning wasn’t enough, the U.S.-Japan Strategic Trade and Investment Agreement secures an unprecedented $550 billion Japanese investment in revitalizing core American industries. Not only is it the largest foreign direct investment in American history, it also ends the slow, painful demise of domestic manufacturing. 

In June 1979, U.S. manufacturing jobs peaked at 19.55 million, accounting for 19% of the labor force. Despite a growing population, we’ve since lost 6.8 million of these jobs, with manufacturing now just 7.5% of the workforce. 

For decades, the experts have written off these blue-collar workers with the declaration, “Factory jobs are gone forever.” (Will they have the same smug attitude when AI sends them their pink slip?) A strong and stable American economy needs a diversified jobs portfolio across industries and sectors. Relying too heavily on technology and services jeopardizes our security and long-term stability. 

For half a century, American workers and industries have been on the losing end of global trade. By cleverly tying tariff rates to investment in U.S. industries, President Trump has done the impossible: begun the process of bringing back jobs to America. We’ll no longer be forced to import 75 percent of our essential medicines and remain dangerously dependent on foreign powers for our supply of semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. 

Free trade requires a level playing field. President Trump’s latest trade deals mark a generational shift towards trade fairness and putting the American people first.