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How low can you go? Cheap goods are still all around
Even after the latest trade regulation, offline sellers are still up in arms over cheap imported goods, which still proliferate online marketplaces – as the Post found out when it purchased two pairs of sneakers for less than $4 each.
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Workers sort items at Lazada Warehouse in Cimanggis, West Java, Thursday, December 17, 2020. during the “Tiga Hari Belanja Online Nasional“ (Garbolnas) that was held on December 12-14, 2020 Lazada experienced a 100% increase in sales compared to 2019 events. Bank Indonesia (BI) recorded as of September 2020 the transactions in e-commerce reached IDR 180.74 trillion lower than the value of e-commerce transactions in 2019 amounting to IDR 201 trillion. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
W
hile the government has pledged to crack down on low-value imported goods, The Jakarta Post encountered no problems purchasing shoes for less than US$4 a pair from e-commerce platforms.
Trade Ministry Regulation No. 31/2023, which effectively discontinued the operations of TikTok Shop in Indonesia, requires local e-commerce companies to charge a minimum freight on board (FOB) price of $100 per imported product sold on their platforms.
The regulation was issued in response to widespread complaints about foreign producers allegedly dumping their goods into the local market through online marketplaces, to the detriment of domestic manufacturers.
Meanwhile, footwear can still be had for $4 or less on the country’s major e-commerce platforms, which begs the question of just how effective the regulation is in curbing sales of low-value consumer goods, if indeed that was ever its intention.
To find out, the Post purchased two pairs of sneakers from different e-commerce platforms, one for Rp 57,000 ($3.63) and the other for a mere Rp 9,500.
The first pair does not look significantly different from the product photo on the merchant’s storefront, though the sole seems narrower in real life. There was no mention about the footwear’s origin on either the merchant’s storefront or the product received.
The merchant gave no precise answer when the Post enquired about where the sneakers were produced, saying only that they had been “sent from” West Java.
