European Parliament’s report on textile supply chains puts pressure on Commission to act

On Thursday 27 April, during the Fashion Revolution Week and in remembrance of the deadly 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, a large majority of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted in favour of the resolution on the garment sector, led by MEP Lola Sanchez Caldentey (GUE/NGL).
The Fair Trade movement welcomes this report emphatically. Besides the important call for binding due diligence (that could create a precedence for other sectors), the report calls on the European Commission (EC) to promote transparency, ILO core conventions such as union rights and to follow OECD guidelines in implementing due diligence obligations. It features also recognition of the full supply chain including cotton and the informal sector, while calling for support in different EU tools for fairer trade, for tariff preferences for Fair Trade products, and the unlocking of the power of public procurement.
The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO), signatory of the Clean Clothes Campaign open letter to the EC urging for more transparency in the textile supply chain, welcomes the adoption of the report by the European Parliament as the first step toward a fair global value chain in the textile industry.