The East African Community member states disagree on whether to implement the ban on the importation of used clothes and leather products, reports the East African.
The countries, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania are concerned that the regional policy might be overriding regional policies.
EAC agreed to ban the importation of the second hand items in 2016 and to restrict the use of old vehicles in the region by 2018 so as to boost industrialization in the region.
Kenya has signaled that it will not implement the 2018 deadline due to lack of capacity to meet the domestic and export demand for textiles.
The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (Smart), a US industry association representing used clothing businesses, filed a petition with the USTR on March 21, saying the ban was undesirable. There are allegations that Kenya is giving into the pressure by lobbyist who petitioned the US Trade Representative (USTR) to cancel the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) pact with East African states for proposing to ban the importation of used clothes, a multimillion-dollar business.
US imported more than $1 billion worth of textiles and apparel from sub-Saharan Africa under Agoa in 2015, according to available data.
