Several firms in the United States have stopped buying textiles from Uganda following the enactment of the anti-gay law.
President Museveni revealed the termination of businesses between Uganda and the US, during a pass-out ceremony of prison officers at Kololo ceremonial grounds in Kampala.
“The homosexuals in the US are interfering with our export of textiles. Some of the orders have been canceled by the homosexuals there,” said Museveni.
“But am not concerned about that because the money you have been squandering with second-hand clothes, importing other people’s fabrics, is much more than what we are going to earn from the sale to the US,” he added.
Uganda was exporting textiles and other agricultural products to the US through the AGOA initiative of the American government.
The US started the AGOA initiative in the year 2000, in partnership with several third-world countries to facilitate quota-free trade between the member states.
The textiles ban follows a warning by the public affairs counsellor at the US mission in Kampala Ellen Masi who had warned that the anti-gay law will affect Uganda’s economy.
Uganda’s parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 in May 2023 and was signed into law by President Museveni.
The enactment of the anti-gay law attracted criticism from the US and other European countries, threatening retaliatory action against Uganda.
However, President Museveni also banned the importation of second-hand clothes, arguing that they belonged to dead people.
“We will not allow second-hand clothes to enter into our country anymore,” President Museveni noted.
