Indonesia's Neo-Mercantilist Regulation in Responding to the Rise of E-commerce

AIDA HOLANDARI A, Dr. Dedy Permadi, S.I.P., M.A.

2020 | Skripsi | S1 ILMU HUBUNGAN INTERNASIONAL

Di dunia kontemporer, teknologi berperan penting dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, termasuk dalam berbelanja dan melakukan transaksi bisnis. E-commerce atau Perdagangan Melalui Sistem Elektronik telah menjadi cara berbelanja dan berjualan yang semakin populer karena kepraktisan fitur-fitur, efisiensi waktu, dan perbandingan harga. Berkat e-commerce, batas geografis tidak lagi menjadi kendala dalam transaksi perdagangan lintas batas. Terkait hal tersebut, Indonesia menghadapi dilema dalam menentukan kebijakan yang akan diambil - regulasi proteksionis atau liberal. Arah regulasi manapun yang diambil Indonesia pada akhirnya akan berdampak pada pertumbuhan e-commerce domestik serta hubungan Indonesia dengan negara asing. Pasar e-commerce di Indonesia telah tumbuh dengan pesat dan potensi pertumbuhannya masih sangat besar, apalagi mengingat gaya hidup baru "from home" sebagai upaya pencegahan penyebaran Covid-19. Jika diatur dengan tepat, e-commerce menjanjikan banyak manfaat seperti keuntungan finansial, penciptaan lapangan kerja, keuntungan pembeli serta kesetaraan sosial bagi Indonesia dan UMKM di dalamnya. Namun, jika pemerintah mengambil langkah yang salah, e-commerce hanya akan semata-mata menjadi alat bagi negara lain untuk memaksimalisasi kepentingannya yang akan merugikan pelaku bisnis dalam negeri. Disinilah konsep digital colonization atau kolonialisasi digital muncul dan menjadi tantangan dalam mengatur e-commerce. Penelitian ini mengkaji produk hukum terbaru Indonesia tentang e-commerce dan menganalisis upaya pencegahan terjadinya digital colonization menggunakan strategi proteksionisme digital, dengan konteks liberalisasi global sistem pasar e-commerce. Penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa Indonesia telah mengambil langkah-langkah Neo-Merkantilis yang terlihat pada pasal proteksionis yang tertuang dalam Peraturan Pemerintah No. 80/2019 tentang E-Commerce dalam upaya mengamankan pasar domestik dan mendukung perkembangan praktisi e-commerce dalam negeri. Di sisi lain, proteksionisme yang berlebihan dapat membahayakan hubungan stabil antara Indonesia dan kekuatan global liberal seperti Amerika Serikat, yang telah dibahas pada bagian Dilema Peraturan. Secara keseluruhan, peraturan ini ditujukan untuk membuat e-commerce ekosistem yang semakin aman dan terpercaya supaya dapat mendukung pertumbuhan e-commerce yang berorientasi domestik selagi menciptakan equal level of playing field atau mengimbangkan peraturan adil yang setara bagi bisnis konvensional dan bisnis online. Di sisi lain, peraturan tersebut telah dikritik karena beberapa ketentuan di dalamnya dinilai bertentangan dengan tujuan utana peraturan e-commerce, dengan membebani pelaku usaha lokal dengan persyaratan tambahan serta kewajiban pajak yang sebelumnya tidak diatur dalam e-commerce.

In the contemporary world, technology plays a crucial role in people's day-to-day lives including in the way they shop and sell. E-commerce has become an increasingly favored way to purchase goods and conduct businesses mainly due to its practicality, time-efficiency and price-comparability. Thanks to e-commerce, geographical borders no longer become an obstacle in cross-border trade transactions. For this reason, Indonesia was faced with regulatory dilemma on whether to issue a protectionist or a liberal regulation since either stream carries detrimental effects to the growth of domestic e-commerce as well as to its relations with foreign parties. E-commerce market in Indonesia has grown significantly and still has a large potential growth, especially considering the new "from home" lifestyle as means to prevent the spread of Covid-19. If it is regulated accurately, it will unlock numerous benefits such as financial benefits, job creation, buyer benefits and social equality for Indonesia and the small and medium enterprises within. However, if the government takes the wrong steps, e-commerce will merely be yet another tool for other countries to maximize their interests at the expense of Indonesia's domestic business practitioners. This is where the concept of "digital colonization" steps in and becomes a challenge in regulating e-commerce. This paper examines Indonesia's latest legal product on e-commerce and analyze to what extent it seeks to prevent the occurrence of digital colonization using digital protectionism as a strategy, given the context of global liberalization of e-commerce market system. The study concludes that Indonesia has taken Neo-Mercantilist measures as seen through its protectionist provisions in Government Regulation no. 80/2019 on E-Commerce in order to secure the domestic market and support the expansion of domestic e-commerce practitioners. Nevertheless, any further extent of protectionism could risk Indonesia its stable relations with liberal global powers like the United States, which has been discussed in the regulatory dilemma section of the study. The overall regulation seeks to make e-commerce a safe and trusted ecosystem that supports the domestic-oriented growth of e-commerce while establishing an equal level of playing field for both conventional and online businesses. On the other hand, certain provisions in the regulation has been criticized for its contradiction to the main objective in that it burdens local sellers and marketplace providers with additional requirements and unprecedented tax obligations on e-commerce.

Kata Kunci : E-commerce, Digital Colonization, Neo-Mercantilism, Protectionist E-commerce Regulation, GR 80/2019