Cagua: EAC should remain firm and reject US blackmail

Editor, RE: “Trade experts fault US over AGOA review” (The New Times, July 24). It’s dehumanizing to witness secondhand clothes being sold in East Africa, and its morally wrong for U.S to force East African Community (EAC) states to peg their access to AGOA to importation of used clothes. There are better and more helpful things we could import from U.S apart from secondhand clothes. EAC should stand firm and demand better treatment in this arrangement. Countries like Kenya have done exceptionally well with AGOA, with 2016 exports earning the country a whopping $352 million and this include apparels and cut flowers. Obviously, if this opportunity is withdrawn, Kenya would be the biggest casualty. But other countries like Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania export negligible volumes under the AGOA framework and therefore have little to lose even if they were removed from the list of countries benefiting from AGOA. Tom ***************** It is always up to us to determine the potential gains and potential losses from any policy decision (and not just in terms of immediate and direct effects). What do we, as East Africans, gain or lose from a broad perspective from discouraging (or banning) the import of cagua? What do we gain-lose from maintaining-withdrawal of AGOA ‘privileges’ (it is a privilege that can be withdrawn at the whim of the one granting it, as it is not based on an international agreement but through unilateral legislation by one party)? Where is the balance of benefits-costs from the two options? Our choice should be determined by our dispassionate calculation of where our balance of benefits is greatest, not from knee-jerk reaction to those who want to play hardball. My own view is that AGOA benefits are far lower than the costs of accepting to remain the dumping place of U.S used clothing (or used anything else), both literally and figuratively. But that is my own opinion, based on what I understand to be the direct and indirect costs and potential gains of banning import of cagua from East Africa and creating and growing our own local textile-garments industry. Mwene Kalinda

Opinions

Cagua: EAC should remain firm and reject US blackmail