leaders declared that the AEC shall be the goal of
regional economic integration by 2020. The ASEAN
Security Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural
Community are the other two integral pillars of the
envisaged ASEAN Community. All the three pillars
are expected to work in tandem in establishing the
ASEAN Community in 2020 (Rachmat, 201)
Subsequently, the Meeting of the ASEAN
Economic Ministers (AEM) held in August 2006 in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, agreed to advance the
AEC with clear targets and timelines for
implementation of various measures. At the 12
th
ASEAN Summit in January 2007, ASEAN leaders
affirmed their strong commitment to accelerate the
establishment of an ASEAN Community by 2015 as
envisioned in the ASEAN Vision 2020 and the
ASEAN Concord II, and signed the Cebu
Declaration on the Acceleration of the Establishment
of an ASEAN Community by 2015. In particular,
the Leaders agreed to hasten the establishment of the
ASEAN Economic Community by 2015 and to
transform ASEAN into a region with free movement
of goods, services, investment, skilled labour, and
freer flow of capital
(ASEAN, 2018).
The AEC has four main pillars and envisages the
following key characteristics: a single market and
production base, a highly-competitive economic
region, a region of equitable economic development
and a region fully integrated into the global
economy (Kementerian Luar Negeri RI, 2015).
The realization of AEC as a single market and a
production base has five elements, namely: free flow
of goods, free flow of services, free flow of
investment, free flow of skilled labors and freer flow
of capital (Simanjuntak, 2015). In particulary, this
research elaborates the element of free flow of
services.
Service sector plays a strategic role in the
economy of ASEAN member countries as about
40%-50% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
are contributed by this sector. In addition, service
sector is a sector with the fastest growth in the
ASEAN region (Kementerian Luar Negeri RI,
2018).
As an effort to improve economic cooperation
through the liberalization of trade in service sector,
the ASEAN member countries agreed the ASEAN
Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) on 15
December 1995 in Bangkok, Thailand. To follow-up
the agreement, a Coordinating Committee on
Services (CCS) was established to develop
modalities to manage the negotiation of the
liberalization of services in the framework of AFAS
which includes eight sectors: air and sea transport
services, business services, construction services,
telecommunication services, tourism services,
financial services, health services and logistic
services (Kementerian Luar Negeri RI, 2015).
AFAS agreement includes the objectives of the
establishment of AFAS: to enhance cooperation
amongst member states in order to improve the
efficiency and competitiveness, diversify the
production capacity and supply and distribution of
services of their service suppliers within and outside
ASEAN; to eliminate substantially restriction to
trade in services amongst member states; and to
liberalize trade in services by expanding the depth
and scope of liberalization beyond those undertaken
by member states under the GATS with the aim to
realizing a free trade area in services.
AFAS serves as a basis for all ASEAN member
countries to agree on the realization of ASEAN
region as a free trade area in service sector,
including sea transportation service. As a sovereign
state, although the free trade era has been open,
Indonesia has to keep the sovereignty of its sea
territory. The sovereignty of Indonesian sea territory
has to be kept and protected. National shipping
companies get the top priority and are given the
biggest opportunity to transport goods or passangers
inter-harbor for national and international shipping.
To keep and protect the legal sovereignty of the
Indonesian waters, government issued the
Presidential Instruction Number 5 Year 2005 on the
Empowerment of the National Shipping Industry. It
regulates the implementation of the Cabotage
Principle in Indonesia so that the country is
recognized as one of maritime axis in the world.
The Cabotage Principle is one of legal principles
contained in sea transport law. The law regulates
that sea transport activity in Indonesia is
implemented by a national sea transport company by
using an Indonesia-flagged ship and manned by
Indonesian ship’s men crew (Article 8 from Law on
Shipping, 2008)
As a result of the implementation of the
principle, government requires national shipping
companies to own Indonesian-flagged ships/their
own ships and use services from a national ship’s
men crew. Government implements the cabotage
principle to ensure that Indonesian-flagged ships
become a king on their own sea area.
Then, the government issued the Decision of the
Transportation Minister Number 71 Year 2005 on
important commodities such as oil and gas, general
cargo, coal, logs, rice, crude palm oil, fertilizer,
cement, excavated materials, vegetables and fruits,
agricultural products, liquid and chemical substances
Juridical Analysis of the Impacts of the Entry into Force of ASEAN Economic Community on the Transport of Goods through Sea