The US plans to suspend duty-free access to Rwandan textile imports. The reason is the African nation’s refusal to lower trade barriers for American-made clothing and shoes.

Rwanda is among the countries eligible for trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. AGOA rewards African nations that undertake economic and governance reforms with duty-free US market access.

Rwanda was among three East African nations—the others are Tanzania and Uganda--that banned imports of used clothing and shoes from the US. The US-based Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association said the ban would impose significant economic hardship in the US used-clothing industry. However, the US won’t suspend AGOA benefits for Tanzania and Uganda saying they have taken steps toward eliminating prohibitive tariff rates on imports of used clothing and footwear and committed not to phase in a ban of these products.

The US exported textiles and apparel worth 330,000 dollars to Rwanda in 2016. Coffee and tea shipments were among top exports to the US. Rwanda has been improving its overall business environment, winning praise for rebuilding since a genocide in 1994 that killed as many as 8,00,000 people. The country ranked second in Africa, behind Mauritius, in the World Bank’s 2018 Doing Business report, said it has carried out the most business-friendly reforms in the region in the past 15 years.