JakartaGlobe-Mar 17, 2026
Indonesia has denied forced labor allegations as the US launched an unfair trade probe into Southeast Asia’s biggest economy in a bid to construct a new tariff assault.
Just a few days ago, the Donald Trump 2.0 administration launched investigations into Indonesia and 59 other economies to examine whether they had failed to block imports of goods made with forced labor. The Jakarta Globe asked Airlangga Hartarto — Indonesia’s economic tsar and the chief tariff negotiator — what sort of steps the government had taken to bar such goods from entering the market. Airlangga responded with claims that there is no unfree labor in the country. “Indonesia is not a colonialist. We don’t believe in forced labor,” Airlangga told a press briefing in Jakarta on Monday evening. He went on to say how the Indonesian workers’ rights had always been under scrutiny, including in Jakarta’s decade-long trade deal negotiations with the European Union (EU). Countries have accused the Indonesian palm oil industry of child labor, although reality says otherwise, according to Airlangga. Indonesia’s tariff deal with Washington — which both governments signed last month shortly before the tide-turning US Supreme Court ruling — already covers unfree labor. ITrump’s forced-labor probe targets six other ASEAN nations besides Indonesia. They are Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand. In the meantime, Indonesia has begun consulting with the US government and is willing to share the data needed. Washington’s concerns over forced labor put emphasis on the economic aspects. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has accused the practices have allowed to foreign manufacturers of gaining an unfair upper hand. The US has also initiated a separate probe into Indonesia’s manufacturing production capacity. Read more at: https://jakartaglobe.id/business/we-are-not-a-colonialist-indonesia-on-us-forced-labor-probe
