Identified as one of the largest sources of production and consumption causing environmental pollution and carbon emissions, it is not surprising that textiles are the subject of a series of policies under the European Green Deal.  

In comparison with other sectors, especially agricultural and food products, the challenges from the EU green policies for the production, export of textiles to the EU have similarities and differences:

- In terms of quantity, the EU green policies, measures related to textiles are quite enormous, however, most of them have been already planned in detail in the Strategy for Circular and Sustainable Textiles, thus the predictability is higher, and the possibility of new regulations that have not been yet identified is also lower (although still existent) compared to other sectors; 

- In terms of scope, most of the green policies that the EU implements in textiles have a wide range of applications, including not only textiles but also many other products (for example, measures on ecodesign, chemicals, microplastics, extended producer responsibility, etc.). In other words, these policies are designed by groups of environmental issues to be handled rather than by products sectors. Accordingly, this will make it more complicated to monitor the progress of green policies relating to textiles, which requires the comprehensiveness in the access and detailed analysis of related regulations;

- In terms of nature, most of the expected policies for textiles are mandatory regulations (rather than recommendations for implementation as in many policies in other sectors). Once applied, these requirements will become minimum standards which foreign manufacturers and exporters must comply with if they want to export goods to the EU. Therefore, Vietnamese textile manufacturers and exporters need to pay special attention to these policies;

- In terms of subject: Unlike agricultural and food products group (specific measures applicable to some specific products), in textile sectors, green policies often apply to all textile products (regardless of the products under any specific HS code). Therefore, all regulations related to textiles must be carefully considered to ensure compliance;

- In terms of impacted aspects: With deep concerns about the impact on the environment throughout the process of manufacturing, using, and disposing of textile products, EU’s green policies on textiles are designed to address these concerns throughout the entire textile production and consumption (from design to raw materials, from production to transportation, from use to repair, from disposal to recycling, etc.). Therefore, although at the initial stage, new obligations only stop at some individual stages (such as labeling products, paying EPR fees, etc.), in the long run, textile manufacturers and exporters to the EU will have to know and implement green transition in many interrelated stages of the production chain.

Source: Report "EU Green Deal and Vietnam's Exports - The case of the agricultural, food and textile industries" – Center for WTO and International Trade

• Ways of European Green Deal’s impacts on Vietnam’s exports
• EU Green Deal and Vietnam's export: Impacted sectors
• EU Green Deal and Vietnam's export: Challenges of awareness change and enhancement
• EU Green Deal and Vietnam's export: Challenge in capability of response, compliance
• EU Green Deal and Vietnam's export: Challenge in the capacity of paying compliance fees