EAST AFRICA : EAC TO CONTINUE BEING U.S DUMPING GROUND FOR USED CLOTHES

Africa has become a dumping ground for used clothes from the West where it often costs more to dispose of clothing than to export it. This has had a negative impact on local economies and the dignity of Africans. Domestic capital in the industry and the domestic consumer market has been decimated in many African countries.

When the East African Community (EAC) resolved to prioritise the development of a competitive domestic textile and leather sector to provide affordable clothes and leather products in the region, this was a positive step towards determining its own development path. India's textile sector is an example of an inward domestic driven structure.

By limiting the size of textile and garment producers, India encouraged small business, mostly family run. India produces textile and garments that are uniquely Indian and despite the transformation of the sector since 2000, with increased imports changing clothing styles in India and an increased focus on exports, the textile and garment sector is the second largest employer after agriculture in India in a decentralised manufacturing structure that has localised benefits of the garment value chain.

However in a world dominated by neoliberal globalisation, such inward orientated strategies offering domestic protections and privileges have been under attack. Tanzania, once very insular under Julius Nyerere who focused on development, in particular rural cooperative development, found too impossible to push back on the conservative agenda of global economic powers in the 1980s. A year before Nyerere stepped down from power in 1985, Tanzania succumbed to pressure from the Bretton Woods institutions, liberalising trade policy.

The consequent liberalisation of tariff lines along with structural adjustment policies have created economic sectors based on export based growth and dependent on foreign direct investment. As the result of liberalisation, policy shifted towards export led growth in textile and garment which has not developed the sector; instead Tanzania's cotton leaves the country unprocessed and second hand clothing, as well as cheap and illegal imports have flooded the country.

Export led growth in the Africa's garment sector has focused on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that has created a complete dependence of African garment workers and the communities they support on the United States market and legislature.

CREDIT :

AllAfrica