As Secondhand Market Booms, USMCA Joint Review Presents Opportunity For Strengthened Circular Trade, Increased Domestic Manufacturing
American Circular Textiles Urges USTR to Prioritize Remanufacturing, Repair, and Recycling for Increased Economic Benefits
WASHINGTON, D.C. – October 29, 2025 – As USMCA comes under joint review, American Circular Textiles has provided input that would bring the agreement in line with emerging trade practices that recognize remanufacturing, repair, and recycling as productive economic activity.
Representing more than 30 brands, resale and rental platforms, used clothing collectors, sorters, repair and care companies, recyclers, manufacturers, and innovators, American Circular Textiles is a public policy coalition committed to building domestic manufacturing capacity and a circular textile economy in the United States and across North America.
With the secondhand apparel market expected to reach $74 billion by 2029, modern approaches to textiles are more than a sustainable option – they strengthen U.S. competitiveness and supply-chain resilience. With this in mind, American Circular Textiles recommends the following to United States Trade Representatives and its counterparts in Canada and Mexico:
Adopt a modernized “fiber-forward” rule of origin that explicitly recognizes recycled fibers and secondary raw materials as eligible regional content when those materials are reclaimed and reprocessed within North America; and that the place of recycling determines the origin.
The US lacks the supply chain to recycle materials and convert them to usable fibers, yarns and garments, therefore this approach has the power to strengthen regional value chains, reduce overreliance on imports, and directly incentivize new domestic recycling and remanufacturing investment.
Facilitate cross-border repair, reuse, and refurbishment by removing customs and tariff barriers that impede circular trade flows. This should include:
Clarifying that used goods and repaired articles are considered originating based on their next use or sale within the region, rather than their original country of manufacture, to support legitimate resale and repair activity.
Modernizing de minimis and duty treatment thresholds so that goods which have already borne duties or taxes during their first sale are not subject to double taxation when resold or reused. These changes would stimulate small business, repair economies, and regional entrepreneurship.
Encourage durable investment in collection, recycling, reuse, sorting, and repair, spinning, weaving, and garment manufacturing infrastructure across North America through cooperative programs or public-private partnerships. Stable policy alignment, including recognition of fiber-testing limitations, would give investors clarity and enable efficient regional movement of recycled inputs.
“As the circular textiles industry continues to evolve rapidly, it is essential that the USMCA review process remains open to ongoing stakeholder input. Continued dialogue with industry, innovators, and civil society will help the agreement keep pace with the innovations driving this transition, and ensure that circularity is built into trade policy rather than treating them as separate or voluntary efforts,” said Rachel Kibbe, CEO & Founder of American Circular Textiles. “With support for collection, repair, reuse, and recycling through USMCA, the United States can build stronger domestic industries, create good jobs, and enhance supply-chain security — ensuring trade policy delivers direct economic benefits for American workers and businesses.”
Members of American Circular Textiles emphasized the importance of support for circular economy stakeholders through USMCA:
“This review presents an important opportunity to work closely with our trading partners in Canada and Mexico to build a more sustainable and circular textiles economy. Creating the right conditions for secondhand clothing to move across borders will help local businesses grow, create new jobs, and support communities in achieving shared environmental goals. We’re eager to contribute to this process, and to strengthen cooperation and partnership across the region.”
— Mattias Wallander, CEO, USAgain
"Resale is the essential force for both planet and prosperity. It's a massive economic engine that strengthens North American supply chains and creates domestic jobs. To achieve true scale in circularity, government and industry must collaborate and create systemic change. By modernizing the USMCA, we can immediately unlock the investment and innovation needed to build a sustainable future for fashion,"
— Alon Rotem, Chief Strategy Officer, ThredUp
“A modernized USCMA that recognizes recycling, reuse, and repair as core economic activity is an essential move towards unlocking the domestic infrastructure needed to scale circularity across North America. Policy alignment empowers innovators like Debrand to continue building the systems that create local jobs, drive sustainable economic growth across domestic markets, and keep textiles in use.”
— Amelia Eleiter, Co-Founder and CEO, Debrand
The secondhand clothing sector in the US directly employed appx 154,000 workers throughout the supply chain in 2023. An additional 188,099 indirect jobs were supported by the secondhand clothing industry. In total, the sector is estimated to have supported 324,152 jobs in the US in 2023, compared with apparel manufacturing in the US which employed just under 90,000 people directly at the start of 2024.
At the same time, less than one percent of textiles are recycled back into textiles today. Strengthening circular trade within USMCA would capture value across U.S. regions — from the South to the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic — while reducing reliance on imports and expanding American leadership in manufacturing.
To learn more about American Circular Textiles and how your membership can mobilize textile circularity in the U.S., visit the website here.
About American Circular Textiles
American Circular Textiles is a coalition of leading fashion organizations aligned on responsible domestic circularity and sustainable fashion public policy, with an emphasis on apparel and footwear reuse and recycling. American Circular Textiles operates under the belief that systemic and scalable change in fashion requires industry players to hold hands and develop a collective voice. The coalition aims to facilitate a transition from a linear to a circular fashion economy, educate and raise awareness around the fashion industry’s current gap in sustainability practices, and to advocate for responsible public policy solutions.
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