For Dignity and Development, East Africa Curbs Used Clothes Imports

[Guest Nicole]

KIGALI, Rwanda — In Kenya, they are called the “clothes of dead white people.” In Mozambique, they are the “clothing of calamity.”

They are nicknames for the unwanted, used clothing from the West that so often ends up in Africa.

Now, a handful of countries here in East Africa no longer want the foreign hand-me-downs dumped on them because they’re trying to manufacture their own clothes.

But they say they’re being punished for it — by the United States.

Here in East Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Burundi have been trying to phase out imports of secondhand clothing and shoes over the last year, saying the influx of old items undermines their efforts to build domestic textile industries. The countries want to impose an outright ban by 2019.

Across Africa, secondhand merchandise is the primary source of clothing — much as it is for cars, planes, hospital equipment, computers and sometimes even drugs that have passed their expiration date.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/world/africa/east-africa-rwanda-used-clothing.html?emc=edit_nn_20171012&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=72721603&te=1&referer&_r=1