| On the surface, it sounds simple enough. You have clothes you don’t want anymore, so instead of just throwing them away, you donate them to a charity. The charity ships those clothes overseas to a nation in need. You’ve done a good deed that is helping people, right? Well, according to the East African Community (EAC), it’s not that simple.
In 2015, some of the states▼ of the EAC, including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and others, announced they were going to reject secondhand clothing donations from the US. They said that although these clothes can help people immediately, they hurt them in the long run. According to the EAC, secondhand clothing donations damage local clothing industries that provide valuable jobs. In short, a donated shirt can keep someone warm today, but a job making shirts could help that person for a lifetime.
The secondhand clothing ban▼ was to take effect this year. However, when the US started pressuring the EAC with other economic restrictions▼, the ban was thrown out. Now, the EAC will only put higher taxes on secondhand clothing imports. Hopefully, it’s the start of a process that will help the EAC build up its own strong economy.
 
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