East African Scrap Metal Ban:

BIR officially contacts respective governments to express concern

Following the recent announcement that the East African Community (EAC) intends to ban scrap metal exports in order to support their own metals industries, the Bureau of International Recycling has addressed an official letter to the headquarters of the East African Community in Tanzania, the government of Kenya and the Kenyan embassy in the UK. The same letter will also be sent to government officials in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

 “The BIR is most concerned with the recent imposition of the ban on export of scrap metal from the five East African Community countries”, writes the Chairman of the BIR International Trade Council Mr Robert Voss of Voss International (UK). Export bans are not only in contradiction with the principle of free and fair trade, he says, but would also have a direct negative impact on both domestic and world markets by distorting the price mechanism and creating an over-abundance of certain metals within the EAC that would eventually lead to excessive stock-piling and tied-up cash flow.

In his letter, Mr Voss expresses his willingness to personally meet with the respective government representatives to discuss the various aspects of this important issue and explain the position of the international recycling industry represented by BIR.

Earlier, Mr Voss had addressed an open letter to the newspaper Business Daily of Kenya in response to an article on the same subject.