Locals lose out in Rwanda’s second-hand clothes war

KIGALI: Across Rwanda, markets selling piles of cast-off clothes once worn by Americans have become the unlikely centre of a trade war that vendors say is ruining their livelihoods.

Kigali, determined to boost its domestic textiles industry, in 2016 raised tariffs on the importation of secondhand clothes, disrupting a multi-million dollar industry and setting it on a collision course with the US.

Friends Celestin Twagirayezu, 33, and Mercelle Dusabe, 35, began selling secondhand clothes a decade ago at adjacent stalls in Kigali’s popular Nyabugogo market in Kigali.

It was a good business which expanded quickly, allowing them to buy homes and get married.

Then Rwanda slapped a 12-fold increase on import tariffs on used clothes and a 10-fold increase on used footwear, a price hike that amounts to a de facto ban for cashstrapped traders.

“The decision took everyone by surprise, at first we relied on the stocked clothes but after a few months reality kicked in, and things went from bad to worse,” said Twagirayezu.

“I am soon throwing in the towel”.

East Africa imports around an eighth of the world’s used clothing into an industry that employs some 355,000 people who earn US$230 million a year, according to a study by the American development agency, USAID.

The large majority of these clothes come from the US and regional leaders, including Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, blame the castoffs for stymieing development of their own clothing industries.

While Twagirayezu has watched his business wither, Dusabe switched to selling Chinese imports, but is not faring much better.

“You can’t imagine how many customers I have lost by switching to selling Chinese clothes! Many people still come asking for second-hand clothes, when they don’t find them they don’t come back,” he said.

Twagirayezu agreed, saying customers prefer second-hand clothes to Chinese imports, citing the lower price and higher quality.

Initially, the East African Community regional bloc was united in its battle against used clothes.

But the alliance cracked as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda balked at the prospect of retaliatory loss of access to US markets via the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) whereby some countries can export some products to the US duty free.

Rwanda, alone, did not capitulate and in 2016 its imports of used clothing dropped by a third.

In late March this year the US told Rwanda it would lose some of its AGOA benefits within 60 days as a result.