This paper examines the textile and clothing (T&C) industry in Lesotho to ascertain the initial effects of the end of quotas and other restrictions
on global trade in textile and clothing. Results show a dramatic decline in Lesotho’s T&C exports, both in value terms and export share in major
markets in industrialised countries: the U.S. and the EU in the aftermath of the Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC). The export decline for
Lesotho and for Sub-Saharan African countries as a group has not been accompanied by simultaneous or rapid shift of increasing T&C exports by
Asian developing countries, who continue to export post-ATC at about the same levels of textile and clothing that they did before ATC phase out.