INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PAGES
Euratex Demands Pan
Euro Med Rules Of Ori-
gin for The Apparel and
Textile Sectorsourcing markets such as Turkey, Morocco, and others. The adoption of the
PEM Convention will avoid lengthy and cumbersome negotiations to establish
a new set of bilateral rules. It will also ensure coherence with Rules of Origin
(list rules) established in other recent FTAs.
Brussels, 25 February 2020 – EURA-
TEX and its UK member have been
working closely to deal with Brexit in
the past few years. Ahead of today’s
General Affairs Council, EURATEX
sent a letter to Michel Barnier, Euro-
pean Commission’s Head of Task
Force for Relations with the UK, ask-
ing to agree on a common set of rules
of origin. EURATEX suggests also to
allow for diagonal cumulation of origin
rules.EU Circular Economy Action Plan: Euratex Stands
Ready With Concrete and Realistic Proposals to
Move It Forward.”
Why are rules of origin crucial? Rules
of origin are important because they
determine whether companies can
benefit from reduced or zero-rated cus-
toms duties.
The textile and clothing industries of
the UK, EU 27 and other European
neighbouring countries are closely in-
terlinked in terms of supply chains,
foreign direct investments and ex-
change of workers. For instance, an
Italian clothing brand buys large
amounts of denim cotton fabrics from
Turkey (sometimes Morocco) and the
full making-up is done in Italy. The
jeans trousers are then sold in the UK.
Another case can be a Swiss twisting
company that imports synthetic yarns
from a production site in UK, twists the
yarn in Switzerland and exports it to
Germany where it is knitted.In addition, it is important that the UK maintains the system of Registered
Exporters (REX), as this will greatly facilitate to proof the origin.
Brussels, 11 March 2020 – The European textiles and clothing sector cares
about circularity of its products; for several years already, the industry is re-
inventing itself to offer solutions that are workable and make a sustainable
impact. That’s why EURATEX welcomes the new Circular Economy Action Plan,
released by the European Commission today, as it reflects many proposals
developed by our industry. At the same time, this Action Plan is just the start-
ing point for developing a more focused strategy, which must take into account
the specific challenges of our sector. EURATEX has already developed its own
comprehensive strategy, including specific recommendations and workable
solutions.
EURATEX welcomes the plan as it sets the foundations to change the way
products are made, the way waste is managed, and the way people consume.
The Action Plan wants to be as comprehensive as possible, involving all the
actors in the value chain, citizens, Members States and local realities. The EU
needs now to set the conditions to remove structural barriers, address or pre-
vent market failures and bring harmonised solutions across the European sin-
gle market. Essentially, the EU needs to create a European market for reuse of
textile material and such an objective can be achieved with the upcoming Strat-
egy for Textiles.
For the textile and apparel industry, the Circular Economy Action Plan is not a
“wake-up call” because companies have been doing a lot for the past years.
They invested money in research and innovation and came up with a wide
range of solutions. They, though, faced a lot of challenges that prevent such
solutions to enter a broader market.
Therefore, the introduction of duties
will have a huge impact in such a highly
integrated supply chain, which is worth
more than Euro 20 billion. A trade
agreement instead will allow compa-
nies to keep operating smoothly, from
fibres to end products.
The most efficient way to proceed is
for the UK to join the Regional Con-
vention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean
preferential rules of origin (PEM Con-
vention). This will allow us to maintain
integrated supply chains, including UK,
EU27, EFTA countries and important
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