Responding to the US threat to remove AGOA preferences - Uganda
Researchers
The second-hand clothing ban in the East African Community (EAC) is a policy whose proposed goal is to spur the development of the local EAC apparel industry. The U.S. Administration, under President Donald Trump, has threatened to remove trade preferences that are provided to EAC countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) if they do not reverse the tariff increases on second-hand clothing imports and publicly confirm that there is no intention to move to a ban.
In response to this threat, Kenya decided to break from the EAC position and unilaterally revert to the pre-2016 tariffs and confirmed publicly on 30 June that it did not intend to proceed with an outright ban. This means that Kenya is no longer subject to the AGOA out of cycle review.
This project evaluates the options available to Uganda and the potential impacts of reverting to pre-2016 tariffs and not rescinding the ban on second-hand clothing.
An accompanying project evaluated similar issues for Rwanda.
