Exploring the impact of EU textiles policies on trading partner countries

Exploring the impact of EU textiles policies on trading partner countries:

Focus on Bangladesh and Ghana

The EU’s emerging framework of circular textiles policies will have a significant impact on third countries. But has the equity of these policies’ outcomes on all supply chain actors been sufficiently considered? Currently, comprehensive, or even rudimentary, impact assessment on trading partners for EU circular economy related policies is not systematically conducted – this is not helped by the lack of basic understanding of current trade and policy harmonisation dynamics between trading partners – particularly that of low-income countries.

A consortium of globally leading circular economy organisations (Chatham House, Circle Economy Foundation, European Environment Bureau) is exploring how the EU’s circular textiles policy framework could be better informed by data and broader, extensive inclusion of key impacted stakeholders across the global value chain. Together with organisations in two trading partner focus countries, BUILD (Bangladesh) and The Or Foundation (Ghana), the project explores both the upstream and downstream aspects of the textiles value chain.

On 19 November, EU policy-makers and project partners will meet to exchange on the findings of the research developed as part of the project [close-door event].

We gratefully acknowledge funding for this project from Laudes Foundation and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with the support of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Host or Publisher The European Environmental Bureau (EEB)