In 2015, the East African Community (EAC) partner states agreed to increase tariffs on second-hand garments to help grow the region’s textile and garment industry.
Three years later, only Rwanda implemented the agreement, while the other partner states withdrew from the plan succumbing to pressure from Donald Trump's America.
Rwanda would soon pay the price when it was removed from the list of countries that accessed duty-free apparel market in the United States through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) framework.
Nonetheless, government stood firm.
It insisted that, while it was not immediately banning hand-me-downs altogether, it needed to take urgent steps to protect the nascent domestic industry.
In addition, America’s and other Western countries’ cast-offs were seen as a stain on the dignity of Rwandans and therefore the move to limit their inflow was, at least in part, an act of patriotism and agaciro.
So Rwandans steamed ahead, convinced that they were on the right side of history.
Just two years later, it has emerged that the country could be starting to reap the benefits after all. The textile and garment sector has since posted strong performance, growing at an unprecedented 83 per cent in value between 2018 and 2020.
Deterred by the introduction of a sudden 30 per cent tariff on their exports to the US market, local apparel manufactures were forced to look elsewhere with statistics indicating that this saw an increase of $34.6 million (about Rwf34.2 billion) worth of exports.
As expected, the prohibitive tariff resulted in a significant fall in textile exports to the US market, valuing just $224,294 (about Rwf222 million) in 2020, down from $2.5 million (about Rwf2.4 billion) in 2018.
It is safe to say that the AGOA garment ban was somewhat a blessing in disguise, as it galvanised local producers to venture to new markets with encouraging returns.
The move has not only boosted the ‘Made in Rwanda’ campaign but it is also translating into tangible benefits such as jobs and stimulating the local industry in terms of creativity and marketing.
Yet the Rwanda-US AGOA garment fallout is not an isolated incident as it reflects the journey that the people of Rwanda have travelled for some two decades or so, as they try to build a country they are proud to call home.
As they say numbers don’t lie.
Early signs are encouraging and the benefits from the decision to discourage importation of used clothing and footwear will soon outweigh what we lost through the AGOA market access.
To the Rwandan industry – large, medium and small-scale players –, we can only urge you to work even harder, and continuously seek to improve both in terms of quality and quantity.