The State Minister for Trade, David Bahati, has responded to the decision by the United States to disengage Uganda from the AGOA market.
Bahati said Uganda won’t sacrifice its culture, norms and values on the altar of homosexuality.
“We took the decision soberly, consciously, well knowing that those who oppose us would blackmail us and want us to take some decisions that affect us both economically and even politically. So we still stand and we shall forever stand for the decision we made against homosexuality in this country and whatever comes, we are ready to find alternative to mitigate the effects of that decision,” said Bahati.
Bahati was at a media interview with journalists who cover Parliament earlier today.
He argued that the decision made by Parliament on homosexuality in Uganda was intended to defend the institution of family, and reaffirm Uganda’s belief that marriage as understood biblically and culturally is meant to be between the union of a man and a woman.
“We aren’t really scared about this market, it is a market that we would have loved to supply, but if it comes to making a choice between allowing homosexuality in our country and going with the American market, then we choose to fight homosexuality. That is our choice and that is a choice that we stand with and we aren’t scared about this because we know that we have alternative markets and what we need to do now is to continue improving the standards of our goods so that we can supply the markets in Europe, Asia and the African market alone, is enough to consume what we are producing now,” asserted Bahati.
