On June 1, 2023 during the second Ministerial Retreat of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers, held in Nairobi, Kenya, a decision was adopted that prevents second-hand clothes from being traded across the continent under the preferences of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The purpose of this measure is to exclude second-hand clothes from preferential trade under the AfCFTA rules (i.e., in exemption of customs duties), so to encourage value-addition and industrialisation in Africa. This decision has been compared on many press and media sources with a previous initiative adopted in the East African Community (EAC). But it is not the same thing. In 2015, the EAC Heads…
Read MoreAfrican Ministers exclude trade of second-hand clothes under the AfCFTA preferential rules
