East Africans seek to defend their garment-makers from American cast-offs
Print edition | Middle East and Africa
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About The Economist Apr 5th 2018 | KAMPALA Print edition | Middle East and Africa
THE second-hand clothes trade often starts with a gift: an old dress or unwanted shirt, passed on for another to use. Along the way it becomes a multi-billion-dollar industry spanning several continents. It ends at a market stall, usually in Africa. And now it is the cause of President Donald Trump’s unlikeliest trade war.
Private companies in America and Europe buy up surplus donations from charities and export them to the developing world. In 2016 east African countries resolved to phase out the trade, complaining that cheap cast-offs hurt their own nascent garment industries. America responded by threatening to impose tariffs on east African goods. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania backed down. But Rwanda has stood fast. So on March 29th Mr Trump said he would suspend duty-free access for Rwandan apparel in 60 days.
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Technically, Rwanda has no grounds for complaint. Like 39 other African countries, it enjoys access to American markets under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), enacted in 2000. One of the eligibility criteria is that countries progressively eliminate barriers to American goods. Rwanda has done the opposite, hiking duties on second-hand clothes 12-fold. “That is almost a de facto ban on these products,” complains an American official.
East Africa accounts for over a fifth of the used-clothes market. Rwanda is only a small part of that. Its stand-off with America is not very costly for either side. In 2016, according to official statistics, Rwanda’s total used-clothes imports were only $18m (against $274m for east Africa as a whole). Its exports under AGOA were just $2m.
But the case has wider resonance. African countries once nurtured their industries behind protective barriers. From the early 1980s they reluctantly opened their markets as a condition of foreign loans. Ghana lost four-fifths of its textile and clothing jobs. In Kenya, the number of big garment manufacturers fell by half. Garth Frazer of the University of Toronto estimates that second-hand imports account for 40% of the collapse in African apparel production from 1981 to 2000 (though the underlying data are fuzzy).
Slapping tariffs on used clothes is unlikely to help. Several countries have already tried import bans; smugglers just carry clothes across the border in a suitcase, passing them off as their own. Most local manufacturers, burdened with patchy power and costly credit, cannot produce clothes cheaply enough for domestic consumers. Rwanda’s biggest textiles firm churns out uniforms, but not the trendy T-shirts worn by young men in Kigali.
The gap in the Rwandan market will probably be filled by imports from China, already worth $12m in 2016. The immediate losers will be consumers, who will pay more. A survey by the American government finds that 95% of used-clothing imports in east Africa are bought by the poorest 40% of the population.
Still, Rwanda seems determined to push on. A special economic zone in Kigali hopes to attract garment-makers. Reducing imports is part of a broader industrial strategy. In economic policy, too, Rwanda is pursuing its own style.
This article appeared in the Middle East and Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Trump’s other trade war”
The Economist is trash.
At the end of he day its up to a country to measure the advantages of placing import blocks vs what it will receive when exporting its wares. Trump is only protecting his economy against China. Problem is his policies will greatly affect the little nations.
The white man doesn’t want Africans to change and live like him .
Rwanda must soldier on, for a brighter future , just because we Africans are ‘poor’ doesn’t justify us wearing second hand .
Our industries can manufacture these clothes cheaply if effort is made , more jobs will be created .
It’s heart breaking, how we strive and struggle so as to meet strict rules and regulations of our Agricultural products, which forms a huge percentage of our exports aboard.
The best products are meant for the export market. On reaching the other side, part of what we get back are used clothes and other used products.
When will we start exchanging the best that we have, with the best that they have ?
Makes you wonder about the Africans involved in the negotiations. But also has to do with the lack of involvement by the affected industries in policy matters. In the west utakuta hao exporters wa mtumba wako na lobbyist pushing their agenda in the government.
Rwanda will certainly be a case study on how africans should develop their homegrown industries.
Our governments should do something to make new clothes made here affordable.
AGOA…ptuuuu! Why bother with it when we can build our own garment industry? African landmass and the capacity to producer raw materials (cotton) can produce enough for herself. The Bretton Woods institution are the instruments of new colonialism (not neo-colonialism). Somebody asked why African currencies are pegged to the US Dollar/French Franc (which are not based on the gold standard, just figures ) when it is Africa which has the gold. Let’s ban mtush totally. Chris Kirubi once said its a shame that our ladies wear second-hand panties (he had hard evidence). Viva United States of Africa, Viva Kagame, Viva @GeorginaMakena ![ATTACH=full]165569[/ATTACH]
It’s not about the white man wanting, it’s all about who pleases the customer the most. You can ban mitumba all you want but if you can’t fill that void its just a waste of time. Complete waste of time.
And its complete utter rubbish kama wewe kama Kagame you are wearing the best Italian suits and the finest Italian designer shoes na unawika ati you are fighting for your country’s entrepreneurs… NONSENSE!!
Your wife your daughter, your whole cabinet shop in Paris wear the finest European Gold jewellery, Rolex watches, Prada, Versace etc na unataka kudanganya watu ati you can rescusitate the garment industry in Rwanda… PIPE DREAM!!
Ni kama tu vile Kenya govt. inajaribu kuban cheap alcohol but you don’t offer an alternative. You won’t let the busaa or muratina trader to expand and offer a variety of products. You know those chang’aa distillers could probably offer better products if they had training and opportunity to offer their own Kenyan products… kwani si vodka ni chang’aa ya Russia tu! But no, that’s very hard work. Its easier to give a stupid blanket ban and hope for the best.
A very very easy way for an African govt. ANY AFRICAN GOVT. to edge out mitumba, is to support young African entrepreneurs DIRECTLY! Support training in universities and fashion schools. Support cotton, sheep and cattle farmers in Rwanda since they’ll provide the raw materials. Build factories and office space for initial fashion designers hata kama ni 100 graduates pekee yake, and help them market their clothes through TV adverisements since they don’t have the money. Promote Rwanda cotton as the finest cotton on earth or Rwandan leather as the finest on earth even if its a complete lie. Then raise taxes on foreign clothes to prop up African clothes.
But you see all these above ni kazi ngumu sana for an African leader. Hana hio time. Afadhali azurure nchi za ng’ambo ama ajenge vitu hazina maana, like painting roads with red paint. Doing the right thing is often very hard work even for a normal African mwananchi. So wacha tungojee mzungu na Japanese atutengenezee. Atufikirie. And in the mean time invite Nissan or VW to build assembly plants in our countries ndio wajaze foreign cars on our roads… African way of solving problems! Na JKUAT saa hizo imejaa jobless mechanical engineers.
And you cannot blame Trump for issuing tarrifs against Rwanda he is doing what a president is supposed to do. Yes, it’s ruthless and YES its brutal, but lazima a protect market yake. The market place is ruthless. The only way to beat Trump at his own game is to be better than him. Offer better and more affordable clothes.
Learn from the Chinese. They are merciless. They will go to America, Italy or France wapige hio nguo picha na watengeneze huko kwao. Hata gari wanatoanisha na wanatengeneza Mercedes yao. Hata kwa ndege hawacheki na Boeing. Simu wamechukua by sheer force, fuck you Samsung! Then soon after, start making better quality aircraft and better cars and better phones. Kama ni ku saturate market na ndege ama nguo wacha tuone ni nani atashinda hio fight! The customer will decide whether to buy an Apple phone or an Infinix. A very fair fight.
Lakini sasa ukijipiga kifua ati you’ll ban foreign clothes and yet hauna kakitu. HAUNA ANY!!! Hata handkerchief mnatoa majuu! Kwani unataka wananchi wa Rwanda watembee ndethe?!! Utabaki hapo na policy zako za ujinga! I read somewhere that plastic paperbags zinaingizwa Rwanda kama zimefichwa hadi kwa bra… Why, because Kagame kicked out plastic but wasn’t offering a better alternative. The people support the plastic ban 110% , COMPLETELY and everyone knows plastic is poison, lakini sasa unataka watu wafanye aje na hufanyi bidii to offer alternative!
Tano tena
Hi mambo ya tano tena ni upuzi. We are all in this together for the long haul whether you like it or not. And there’s no guarantee that a Raila or Peter Kenneth or Dida presidency would be fairing any better. Furthermore you may not have voted for Uhuru or you probably didn’t even vote in the presidential race but you still voted for an MCA who is equally useless so that puts you in the same ship as the tano tena crew.
And for the most part the whole Kenyan opposition even today doesn’t offer alternative leadership, at all! Si ni juzi tu wali shake hands to endorse the status quo?
And even during the campaign period the opposition didn’t offer an alternative view. Uhuru akisema free secondary education Raila anasema, “free secondary education yangu itakuja January wachana na hii ya Uhuru”…
Uhuru akisema SGR, Raila hawezi propose angalau Air freight, infact yeye personally ndio aliua KenCargo and by extension KQ. Uhuru akisema the very expensive
Sgr Raila ana counter na kusema, “It was actually my idea”… How is that alternative leadership?
Raila anasema “wale ni wezi” na kwake hataki kujua wakiiba.
The argument now should be, as young Kenyans tumeona makosa imefanyika, what have we learnt from the seniors and how can we improve the situation?
we actually do. kina ogake bridals and wambui mukenyi who stich gowns at 100k while importing one from chinese catalogue is only 15k. look at the difference in pricing. question is how can we reduce this pricing from 100k to say 30k? the cheap ones from ngara go for about 25k and the workmanship is pathetic.
The caliber of people we appoint to these very crucial gov’t jobs. Need I say any more?
Those are ‘dying’ trades. It used to be that we learnt some basics in school to excite our interest, then we went and made Home Science an optional subject (?). I wonder how many candidates nowadays enrol for the KNEC Trade Tests for which Singer once was their examination Centre.