GOTS on Europe's political agenda

In accordance with GOTS’ general policy, the GOTS representatives maintained that “a voluntary global standard, set in partnership with international stakeholder communities, ensures widespread global acceptance; in contrast to mere national standards, it also helps to remove barriers to international trade.” (see GOTS Mission Statement). Thus, they suggested that governments should formally endorse reliable stakeholder driven global environmental and social standards and referred to the recent formal recognition of GOTS by the US government (see GOTS News Feb 2012). Later in May, Eco Textile News, the leading international publication on sustainable textiles, reported on the European Commission’s decision to refrain from revising the EU organic regulation to include textiles saying that “this latter statement does suggest that the Commission is at least ready to consider formally recognizing GOTS”.