Shopee Indonesia Officially Stops Selling Products From LN Sellers

JAKARTA - Shopee Indonesia officially stopped selling products from foreign sellers or cross borders. This decision is in line with the issuance of the Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) Number 31 of 2023.

Shopee Indonesia's Head of Public Policy, Radityo Triatmojo, said the termination of product sales from foreign sellers or cross borders had been closed since Wednesday, October 4, 2023, at 22.00 WIB.

Raditya explained that the cross-border transaction itself at Shopee was recorded at less than 1 percent. In addition, the cross-border mechanism carried out is also in accordance with the process in the applicable laws and regulations such as taxation.

"We can say that the products sold cross-border at Shopee are not products that compete directly with MSME products. Because we have closed 14 categories of cross-border products that compete with MSME products in accordance with the direction of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs in 2021," he said in an official statement, Friday, October 6.

So far, he continued, the cross-border carried out by Shopee Indonesia aims to make local products also have the same opportunities and the same opportunity to be able to access the export market directly.

Currently, said Radityo, there are more than 20 million local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) available on cross-border markets in the ASEAN, East Asia and Latin America regions.

"We will try even though the closing of cross-border sellers in Indonesia does not affect the current export activities of Indonesian products," said Radit.

As previously reported, the government through the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) officially prohibits the sale of imported goods at e-commerce below 100 US dollars or equivalent to Rp1,550,000 (assuming an exchange rate of Rp15,500 per dollar).

This prohibition applies to goods sent directly by cross-border.

The regulation refers to Permendag Number 31 of 2023 concerning business licensing, advertising, coaching, and supervision of business actors in trading through electronic systems.

Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan said this step was taken by the government to protect local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) products.

"Governments around the world will certainly protect their domestic MSMEs," he said at a press conference, written Thursday, September 28.

For your information, the complete provisions regarding this prohibition are regulated in Article 19 of the Regulation of the Minister of Trade Number 31 of 2023.

Article 19 reads that PPMSE, which carries out transnational PMSE activities, is obliged to apply the minimum price of goods on its electronic system to merchants who directly sell finished goods from abroad to Indonesia.

"The minimum item price as referred to in paragraph (1) is a freight on board (FOB) of 100 US dollars per unit," reads Article 19 paragraph 2.

In paragraph 3 it is explained, in the event that the price of goods as referred to in paragraph (2) is given in a different currency, conversion is carried out using the value of the exchange rate set by the minister who organizes government affairs in the state finance sector.

"Goods at prices below the minimum price of goods as referred to in paragraph (2) are allowed to enter directly through the PPMSE which carries out cross-border PMSE activities, determined by the minister based on the results of a ministerial/head-level coordination meeting of the relevant non-ministerial government institutions," reads article 19 paragraph 4.