International spillover effects in the EU's textile supply chains: A global SDG assessment

Abstract

Successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires world countries to account for actions that inadvertently generate negative impacts on other countries. These actions/effects are called 'spillovers', and can hinder a country's SDG progress. In this work, we analyse negative social spillover effects, focussing specifically on the occupational health and safety aspects of workers in textile supply chains. We select two indicators: fatal accidents and non-fatal accidents that take place in global supply chains for satisfying consumption of textile products (such as clothing, leather products) by European Union (EU) countries. Specifically, we scan global supply chains originating in countries outside of EU for meeting the demands of its citizens. To this end, we employ a well-established technique of multi-regional input-output analysis, featuring information on 15,000 sectors for 189 countries, to scan international supply chain routes that are linked to consumption of textile products by EU countries. Our findings suggest that Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Belgium and Portugal are collectively responsible for about 80% of both fatal- and non-fatal accidents that are attributed to the EU's consumption-based footprint. These findings not only call for a need for coherent SDG policies that consider spillover effects, but also the need for these effects to be included in EU's strategic instruments and policy-related tools.

Keywords: International trade; Policy instruments; Spillover; Sustainability; Sustainable development goals.