The Trade Agreement: A Manifestation of Indonesia's Economic Dependence on the United States
The Trade Agreement: A Manifestation of Indonesia's Economic Dependence on the United States

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July 19, 2025

The Trade Agreement: A Manifestation of Indonesia's Economic Dependence on the United States

The Trade Agreement: A Manifestation of Indonesia's Economic Dependence on the United States

News:

US President Trump announced a trade agreement with Indonesia, in which tariffs on Indonesian goods were reduced from 32% to 19% after being threatened with an increase. In return, Indonesia committed to purchasing $15 billion worth of American energy, $4.5 billion worth of agricultural products, and 50 Boeing aircraft, including 777s. Trump stated that America would gain full access to the Indonesian market without paying fees. The deal was concluded after talks with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, but the date for the start of tariff reduction and purchase has not yet been determined. Trade between Indonesia and America amounted to about $40 billion in 2024, with an American trade deficit of about $18 billion. This deal comes within the framework of Trump's efforts to conclude similar trade agreements with countries such as Britain, Vietnam, and China, with ongoing negotiations with India and the European Union, to address what he considers unfair trade practices that harm American interests. (The Guardian)

Comment:

The latest development in trade relations between Indonesia and America, which Indonesia welcomed as a diplomatic success due to the reduction of American tariffs from 32% to 19%, highlights a deeper structural weakness in Indonesian international diplomacy. This alleged success pales in comparison to the fact that America has obtained significant concessions; full and tariff-free entry into the Indonesian market, and forcing Indonesia to purchase 50 Boeing aircraft, and multi-billion dollar deals to purchase American energy and agricultural products. At its core, Indonesia does not enter into equal sovereign negotiations, but is forced to comply under pressure.

This dynamic is not new. Since Indonesia's (independence), the United States has played a significant role in shaping its political and economic direction. Through tools such as foreign debt and reliance on donors, America has been able to penetrate decision-making processes in Indonesia, influencing everything; from economic liberalization to the pattern of political governance. Indonesia's natural wealth - from oil and gas to copper and gold - has long been exploited under agreements that disproportionately favor foreign companies, especially those associated with American interests.

What is particularly unfortunate is the celebratory tone from Indonesian officials towards what is in reality economic coercion! Instead of challenging the unequal nature of the agreement or defending the country's right to protect its national industries and economic sovereignty, the government has chosen to present the agreement as a success. This reflects a broader pattern in Muslim-majority countries, where post-colonial dependence and the absence of true political independence continue to hinder efforts to build strong and self-sufficient economies.

On a broader scale, this incident highlights the geopolitical fragility of Islamic countries. Despite possessing vast natural and human resources, they remain divided, weak, and unable to assert themselves on the global stage. This weakness is not only economic, but also political and principled. This explains the continued inability of Muslim-majority countries to protect their peoples, as well as to show genuine solidarity with their oppressed brothers, such as the Palestinians.

Unless Islamic countries develop political systems that elevate sovereignty, unity, and self-reliance instead of submission to foreign powers and neoliberal institutions, they will remain mere tools in the hands of global powers. True independence requires more than just reducing tariffs; it requires the courage to confront economic exploitation and build a system that serves the people, not foreign interests.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir

Abdullah Aswar

More from News & Commentary

Turkey and Arab Regimes Asked Hamas to Lay Down Their Weapons

Turkey and Arab Regimes Asked Hamas to Lay Down Their Weapons

(Translated)

News:

The high-level United Nations international conference entitled "Finding a Peaceful Solution to the Palestinian Issue and Implementing the Two-State Solution" was held in New York on July 29 and 30, led by France and Saudi Arabia. Following the conference, which aimed to recognize Palestine as a state and end the war in Gaza, a joint declaration was signed. In addition to the European Union and the League of Arab States, Turkey also signed the declaration along with 17 other countries. The declaration, which consisted of 42 articles and an annex, condemned Operation Al-Aqsa Flood carried out by Hamas. The participating countries called on Hamas to lay down its weapons and demanded that it hand over its administration to the Mahmoud Abbas regime. (Agencies, July 31, 2025).

Comment:

Considering the countries running the conference, the presence of America is clearly evident, and despite not having the authority or influence to make decisions, the Saudi regime, its servant, accompanying France is the clearest evidence of this.

In this regard, French President Emmanuel Macron stated on July 24 that France would officially recognize the Palestinian state in September, and would be the first G7 country to do so. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barreau held a press conference at the conference, announcing the goals of the New York Declaration. In fact, in the statement issued after the conference, the massacres of the Jewish entity were condemned without taking any punitive decision against it, and Hamas was asked to disarm and hand over the administration of Gaza to Mahmoud Abbas.

In the new Middle East strategy that America seeks to implement based on the Abraham Accords, the Salman regime represents the spearhead. Normalization with the Jewish entity will begin after the war, with Saudi Arabia; then other countries will follow, and this wave will turn into a strategic alliance extending from North Africa to Pakistan. The Jewish entity will also receive a security guarantee as an important part of this alliance; then America will use this alliance as fuel in its conflict against China and Russia, and to include Europe completely under its wings, and of course, against the possibility of establishing the Caliphate.

The obstacle to this plan currently is the war in Gaza and then the anger of the Ummah, which is increasing and is about to explode. Therefore, the United States preferred that the European Union, the Arab regimes, and Turkey take the initiative in the New York Declaration. Thinking that accepting the decisions contained in the declaration would be easier.

As for the Arab regimes and Turkey, their mission is to please the United States, protect the Jewish entity, and in return for this obedience, protect themselves from the anger of their peoples, and live a humiliating life with the crumbs of cheap power until they are thrown away or afflicted with the torment of the afterlife. Turkey's reservation on the declaration, on the condition that the so-called two-state solution plan is implemented, is only an attempt to cover up the real goal of the declaration and mislead Muslims, and it has no real value.

In conclusion, the path to liberating Gaza and all of Palestine is not through a fictitious state in which Jews live. The Islamic solution for Palestine is the rule of Islam in the usurped land, which is to fight the usurper, and to mobilize the armies of Muslims to uproot the Jews from the blessed land. The permanent and radical solution is to establish the Rightly Guided Caliphate and protect the blessed land of Isra and Mi'raj with the shield of the Caliphate. God willing, those days are not far away.

The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: "The Hour will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims will kill them, until the Jew hides behind the stone and the tree, and the stone or the tree says: O Muslim, O servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, so come and kill him." (Narrated by Muslim)

Written for the Central Media Office radio of Hizb ut-Tahrir

Muhammad Amin Yildirim

What America Wants is Official Recognition of the Jewish Entity, Even if Weapons Remain

What America Wants is Official Recognition of the Jewish Entity, Even if Weapons Remain

The News:

Most of the political and security news in Lebanon revolves around the issue of weapons targeting the Jewish entity, without any other weapons, and focusing on it by most political analysts and journalists.

Comment:

America is asking for the weapons that fought the Jews to be handed over to the Lebanese army, and it does not care about any weapons that remain in the hands of all the people, which can be used internally when it finds an interest in doing so, or between Muslims in neighboring countries.

America, the greatest enemy of us Muslims, said it frankly, even rudely, when its envoy Barack stated from Lebanon that the weapon that must be handed over to the Lebanese state is the weapon that can be used against the Jewish entity occupying blessed Palestine, and not any other individual or medium weapon because this does not harm the Jewish entity, but rather serves it and serves America and the entire West in inciting it to fight between Muslims under the pretext of takfiris, extremists, reactionaries, or backward people, or other descriptions that they fuel among Muslims under the pretext of sectarianism, nationalism, or ethnicity, or even between Muslims and others who have lived with us for hundreds of years and found nothing from us but the preservation of honor, money, and life, and that we were applying the laws to them as we apply them to ourselves, they have what we have and they are obligated to do what we are obligated to do. For the Sharia ruling is the basis of governance for Muslims, whether among themselves, or between them and other subjects of the state.

As long as our greatest enemy, America, wants to destroy or neutralize the weapon that harms the Jewish entity, then why focus on that among politicians and media professionals?!

Why are the most important topics raised in the media and in the Council of Ministers, at the request of the American enemy, without examining them in depth and clarifying the extent of their danger to the nation, the most dangerous of which is the demarcation of the land borders with the Jewish entity, that is, the official recognition of this occupying entity, in a way that no one after that has the right to carry weapons, any weapons, for the sake of Palestine, which is the property of all Muslims and not only the people of Palestine, as they try to convince us as if it belongs only to the people of Palestine?!

The danger lies in presenting this matter sometimes under the title of peace, sometimes under the title of reconciliation, and at other times under the title of security in the region, or under the title of economic, tourism and political prosperity, and the prosperity that they promise Muslims in the event of recognition of this monstrous entity!

America knows very well that Muslims can never be satisfied with recognizing the Jewish entity, and that is why you see it creeping into them through other things to distract them from the most important fateful matter. Yes, America wants us to focus on the issue of weapons, but it knows that weapons, no matter how powerful, will not work and cannot be used against the Jewish entity if official Lebanon recognizes it by demarcating the borders with it, and thus recognizes it and its right to the land of blessed Palestine, under the pretext of the Muslim rulers and the Palestinian Authority.

This recognition of the Jewish entity is a betrayal of God, His Messenger, and the believers, and of all the blood of the martyrs that has been shed and continues to be shed for the liberation of Palestine, and despite all that, we still hope for good in our nation, some of whom are fighting in Gaza, Hashim, and in Palestine, and they say to us with their blood: We will never recognize the Jewish entity, even if it costs us all this and more... So, do we accept in Lebanon to recognize the Jewish entity, no matter how difficult the circumstances are?! Do we accept to demarcate the borders with it, that is, to recognize it, even if the weapons are left with us?! It is the question that we must answer before it is too late.

Written for the Central Media Office Radio of Hizb ut-Tahrir

Dr. Muhammad Jaber

Head of the Central Communications Committee of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the Wilayah of Lebanon