Trade Theory vs. Used Clothes in Africa

In Uganda the seemingly ubiquitous struggle between free traders and protectionists is played out in the debate over used clothes. Like so many other cities in Africa, Uganda's capital, Kampala, is the destination for millions of dollars worth of second-hand garments from the developed world. But while myriad jobs have sprung up in Uganda's used clothes trade, those involved in the country's fledgling domestic clothing industry have argued that their firms' growth has been stunted by cheap imports of used clothes. Industry leaders have rallied against mivumba, the word for 'used clothing' in the Luganda language, and succeeded in attaching to it a 15% duty. Similar restrictive measures have been enacted elsewhere in Africa, with a ban imposed in South Africa and other prohibitions passed in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. The debate, however, continues on whether the continent's governments should work for the well-being of the domestic garment industry, which is yet to grow stronger, or the mivumba industry, which, in one market in Kampala alone, employs 50,000 people. – YaleGlobal