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Access repriced, compliance resets textile sourcing

At the start of February, the signal was clear: trade policy is now a primary input into sourcing strategy, not a background constraint. The latest US–South Asia frameworks effectively set a new regional benchmark for negotiated access, with India at ** per cent and Bangladesh at ** per cent, numbers that are starting to function like a reference point for where “acceptable” access pricing may land.

At the same time, social licence tightened alongside market access. In early February, global unions issued a Just Transition manifesto for textiles and garments, arguing that decarbonisation and circularity must come with binding protections for the workforce, more than *** million people globally, most of them women in producing economies. The statement also quantified the circularity gap: less than * per cent of textiles are recycled back into fibres, while around ** per cent of post-consumer textiles still go to landfill or incineration. That shifts “design for circularity” from a brand narrative to a commercial requirement.