By Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
The Used Clothes Importers and Dealers Association (UCIDA) is challenging the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) to provide scientific proof to back its claim that used undergarments, mattresses,handkerchiefs and sanitary wares pose health risks to users hence the need to implement and enforce a Legislative Instrument which bans their use in the country.
The GSB is seeking to with effect from February, next year, implement and enforce LI 1586, 1994 which prohibits the importation, distribution and sale of used undergarments and other clothing popularly known as “obroni waa wu” in the country.
The move, according to the board, is to help reduce the possible health risks associated with people who use such clothes in the country.
But even before the implementation and enforcement of the LI begins next year, importers and dealers in the said clothing are already up in arms against the move, describing it as baseless and lacking proof.
Mr Oscar Ankoma, Patron of the National Used Clothes Importers and Dealers Association, told The Mirror “the GSB should provide us with scientific proof or complaints from people who became sick after using our products”.
According to Mr Ankoma, “the goods imported into the country as used clothing are well washed in machines and then fumigated with Methyl Bromide Gas and further given an exposure time of over 24 hours”, a move he said kills all the germs that might have been present in them.
The LI, he said, was passed in 1994 due to a petition by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) to the Ministry of Trade and Industry that the used clothes was killing their businesses.
He noted that the government at the time intended to ban the sale of used clothes in the country “but UCIDA made the government to understand that the Ghanaian textile industry is producing below standards so the people preferred our used clothes to the locally manufactured ones”.
As a result, Mr Ankoma said the complete ban “was removed and the undergarments, mattresses, handkerchiefs and sanitary wares mentioned. But because it had no bases the government relaxed it again”.
The national patron then wondered why the LI is to be implemented and enforced by GSB at this time, adding “we will petition the government because this is not going to help the economy”
Mr Ankoma also expressed fears that the law may in the near future be extended to cover other areas of their businesses, stressing that “this is a sector that employs a lot of people and pays a lot of revenue as in custom duty to the government”.
He also noted that the ban would encourage smuggling of used clothes into the country, a situation he said would deny the government the various revenues it got from them - the importers and dealers.
“This thing is going to create smuggling. If the people want the thing and they are not getting it what do you think they will do?,” he asked.
He thus called on the GSB to rather specify the standards used undergarments and the other clothes that they the importers should meet for them to comply rather than seeking to ban them.
According to the LI, the importation, distribution and sale of used undergarments such as used brassieres, pants, singlets, underwear and other clothes such as used mattresses, handkerchiefs and sanitary wares in the country are prohibited.
However, these products are imported into the country, openly distributed and sold throughout the country, notably Kantamanto in the Greater Accra and Railways in Kumasi.
The GSB is now bent on implementing and enforcing the LI and has since been holding fora with the UCIDA in Takoradi, Kumasi and Accra.
The Accra forum was held at the Allen Gyima Hall in Kantamanto, a place where such clothes are largely distributed and openly sold to the general public.
The meeting was attended by officials from the GSB, Ministry of Trade and Industry and members of the Greater Accra regional UCIDA and the media.
Speaking at the meeting, the acting Director, Inspectorate Division at the GSB, Mr Kofi Nagetey, observed that importers of used clothing were still importing used undergarments after the passage of the LI.
Mr Nagetey said the prohibited goods “are always hidden among other used clothing like trousers and jackets in the bales, thus making it difficult to detect them at the ports ”.
He stressed that used undergarments, handkerchiefs and mattresses posed serious dangers such as skin diseases and bacterial infections to consumers due to their direct contact with the skin and their absorption of fluid from the body.
Mr Nagetey therefore called for the support of the importers and other stakeholders to enable them to implement and enforce the legislation to enable the country to cut down the risks associated with using the used clothes.
As part of measures to ensure the strict and successful implementation and enforcement of the LI, the board, according to Mr Nagetey, would from the first quarter of next year begin the inspection of consignments of used clothing at the various ports and entry points.
“Any consignment of used goods found to contain any used clothing will then be confiscated and destroyed”, he added.
Should the LI be effected, Mr Ankoma, the UCIDA patron said the association would for the time being comply with it but would not hesitate to advice itself at the appropriate time.
During the forum, Mr George Sarpong, Manager of Bast and Son’s Limited, a used clothes company at Kantamanto and member of the Kantamanto branch of the UCIDA, rejected the move and rather called for the review of the LI.
“We have to revisit that LI; it is repugnant, it needs to be reviewed. Even the Constitution is undergoing review, how much more that LI,” Mr Sarpong said.
He further alleged that the confiscation of consignments found to contain used undergarments as indicated by the GSB “is going to create job for the boys” and asked “where will the confiscated goods be sent to”.
Mr Sarpong was also of the view that the February deadline given by the GSB was too close since most of their consignments could take up to six months to arrive in the country.
Responding to their concerns, the acting director urged the members to be dispassionate about the LI, adding that the implementation and enforcement process would be done with a human face.
He further called on them to stop reading politics into the implementation and enforcement process.
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