Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) is seeking to ensure that locally manufactured solar panels are exempt from US import duties that could soar into the hundreds of percent.”We are fighting to ensure they comply with the tariffs stipulated in the ART (Agreement on Reciprocal Trade). If the tariff is 15 percent, then it should be a maximum of 15 percent. No more than 15 percent,” ESDM Deputy Minister Yuliot remarked on Friday.Yuliot said he had reviewed the solar panels facing tariffs of up to several hundred percent.He explained that the panels subject to the steep US tariffs were not manufactured in Indonesia but had only undergone a relabeling process in the country, a practice known as transshipment.Transshipment is the act of moving or sending goods from one country to Indonesia, to be sent to another country after obtaining certain documents from Indonesia. For example, country A uses this practice to avoid reciprocal tariffs to import goods into the United States.Following up on this situation, Yuliot asked the Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, Eniya Listiani Dewi, to re-identify which solar panels are produced domestically and which are transshipped.By categorizing solar panels based on their production source, Yuliot hopes to protect domestically produced solar panels from US tariffs.United States President Donald Trump has imposed import tariffs of up to hundreds of percent on solar panel products from Indonesia, India, and Laos, according to the US Department of Commerce on February 25.The US Department of Commerce announced a temporary tariff of 125.87 percent on Indian solar panel products, along with countervailing duties ranging from 86 to 143 percent on Indonesian solar panels, and 81 percent on those from Laos.According to the US authority, solar panel products from these countries benefit from unfair local government subsidies.A Bloomberg report also stated that the subsidies allow exporters from the three countries to lower prices and compete with US manufacturers.The tariffs are intended to encourage domestic solar panel production in the United States.India, Indonesia, and Laos accounted for 57 percent of all solar panel imports to the US in the first half of 2025, with imports from India alone reaching US$792.6 million in 2024, a ninefold increase from the value of imports in 2022.The tariffs were imposed following complaints from US manufacturers, who in a lawsuit last July accused Chinese manufacturers of flooding the US market with low-priced products manufactured in the three Asian countries, including Indonesia.