Making Trade Work for Circularity: Guidelines for a Technical-Regulation for Second-Hand Textiles
Feb 10, 2026 | 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM
Description
Organised by: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN ECLAC)
This side-session to the 2026 OECD Forum on Garment & Footwear will launch the new EU-funded UNECE–ECLAC study Making Trade Work for Circularity, which provides a practical regulatory blueprint to shift second-hand textile trade from “waste displacement” toward value-preserving circularity. The study proposes WTO-consistent design options, including clear waste/re-wearable distinctions, mandatory pre-export sorting with verifiable data, and digital documentation aligned with emerging standards and due-diligence frameworks. It also highlights enabling conditions already in place, from EU Waste Shipment rules and Ecodesign/DPP to advances in automated sorting and growing momentum in global trade and environmental fora. Overall, the session will present a regulatory toolkit and implementation pathway showing how smarter trade rules can enhance quality, reduce environmental harm, and make OECD-aligned due-diligence claims evidence-based.
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