Trade Liberalization and Export Competitiveness: A Case Study on Indonesian Seaweed in the Global Market

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the characteristics of Indonesian seaweed commodities, analyze Indonesian seaweed export competitiveness model in the global market, analyze the Government of Indonesia's efforts to improve the export competitiveness of Indonesian seaweed commodities and analyze the role of actors in increasing the Indonesian seaweed in the global market. This research used mix method analysis quantitative and qualitative, the collected data through primary data derived from Indonesian Seaweed Association and secondary data from United Nations Commodity and Trade, Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistic, Bank of Indonesia, Ministry of Trade. This research found that the characteristics of Indonesian seaweed according to several variables such as export competitiveness, productivity, raw material price, trade liberalization rate, inflation rate, exchange rate, research and investment development, and product differentiation have fluctuated value from 2006 to 2016. The result of regression data shows that interest rate, exchange rate, economic growth, raw material price, farmer wage rate, product differentiation, and liberalization policy has a positive effect on RCA seaweed. Inflation, productivity, nominal protection coefficient, and research development investment have a negative influence on RCA. The prediction on the competitiveness of Indonesian seaweed is that the competitiveness will still increase, but it depends on the economic condition of Indonesia in the future. It is necessary to have synergy between government, private, and universities to increase seaweed competitiveness in the global market.