Industry News

USTR opened comments on October 5, 2026 ahead of the 2027 USMCA joint review, after the United States declined to extend the pact for a new 16-year term. Here is what leather jacket buyers should check in their origin files.

UK Defra opened a request for information on October 15, 2026 on two brominated flame retardants and one group of unintentional by-products, with responses due by November 29, 2026. The outcome could change what leather jacket buyers must document from their suppliers.

EU market surveillance results published in 2026 show 82% of tested safety footwear non-compliant and 37% of clothing labels inaccurate. For leather jacket buyers, the failures point to documents, labels and traceability.

China published three revised national test methods for leather on September 28, 2026, including a new edition of the method used to measure nickel release from leather hardware. The standards take effect on April 1, 2027, and change the technical basis Chinese laboratories cite when a leather jacket is tested before export.

France's Law No. 2026-602 creates a legal definition of ultra fast fashion and bans advertising for it from January 1, 2027. Leather jacket sellers also face manufacturing-location display duties online and eco-contribution penalties that already apply.

The European Commission's updated REACH Restrictions Roadmap, published on 31 August 2026, brings leather tanning and leather articles inside the intended scope of a coming group restriction on bisphenols. A second track covering skin sensitisers in leather articles has reached the drafting stage.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management published guidance on October 9, 2026 explaining how manufacturers can seek an exemption from the state's Consumer PFAS Ban Act of 2024. The Act prohibits covered products containing intentionally added PFAS from January 1, 2027, and its definition of textile expressly includes leather.

The UK government's call for evidence on digital product records closed on September 21, 2026. The consultation explored a British system for digital product information that would sit alongside the EU's Digital Product Passport, which applies in Northern Ireland and covers textiles and apparel through future delegated acts.

CBP proposed a rule on October 8, 2026 that would require low-value shipments to be entered electronically, on or before arrival, and would add a new electronic entry type for goods arriving by mail. For a Leather Jacket buyer it reaches everyday consignments: samples, small replenishment orders and any parcel valued at 2,500 US dollars or less.

The United States and China have extended their tariff truce and activated a joint trade body whose published product lists, released on September 27, 2026, set out which goods could receive reduced tariffs. For a Leather Jacket programme sourced from China, the practical point is direct: the lists cover household textiles and consumer goods, but no apparel and no leather goods.

On October 2, 2026, the European Chemicals Agency published the provisional draft agenda for the 73rd meeting of its Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis. The agenda carries the item that will decide the future of the EU's PFAS restriction: the universal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances proposal, listed as adoption of the SEAC opinion. The meeting runs from November 17 to November 19, 2026, and registration closes on October 27, 2026.

On April 13, 2026, the US Environmental Protection Agency published a final rule that moves the start of the data submission period under the TSCA PFAS Reporting Rule to January 31, 2027, or 60 days after a further EPA action, whichever is earlier. The rule covers companies that manufactured or imported PFAS, including PFAS contained in articles, in any year from 2011 through 2022. That scope reaches leather jacket importers, not only chemical producers.

On September 17, 2026, the European Commission published Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102 in the Official Journal. The act removes raw hides, tanned hides and finished bovine leather from the scope of the EU Deforestation Regulation, and it entered into force the following day.

China has fixed April 1, 2027 as the start date of a new mandatory national standard for leather and fur products. GB 20400-2026, Safety technical specification for leather and fur products, was issued on March 31, 2026, according to the record held by China's national standards platform.

Since August 6, 2026, a leather jacket placed on the European Union market must not release more than 0.080 mg/m3 of formaldehyde under the chamber test conditions set out in Appendix 14 of REACH Annex XVII. For a buyer building a leather jacket range for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, the change lands in the test file rather than in the sample room.

US Customs and Border Protection will deploy Phase 3 of its IEEPA refund system on October 6, 2026, the agency told the Court of International Trade on September 15, 2026. The phase reaches finally liquidated entries, and it matters to leather jacket buyers whose 2025 entries carried an IEEPA duty line.

From August 12, 2026, every carton, polybag and mailer that carries a leather jacket into the European Union sits inside a new regime. Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, replaced the 1994 Packaging Directive on that date, and the Commission confirms that the recyclability duty starts then, not later.

California's next textile rulemaking step is set for September 29, 2026, when CalRecycle holds an informal public workshop in Sacramento on the regulation concepts behind the Responsible Textile Recovery Act. For any brand that sells a leather jacket into California, the agenda reaches the question that decides who carries the duty: producer identification and exemptions.

From December 9, 2026, the European Union replaces the product liability rules it has applied since 1985. Member States must have transposed Directive (EU) 2024/2853 by that date, and every leather jacket placed on the EU market afterwards falls under the new regime instead.

On July 31, 2026, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security added 43 companies to the UFLPA Entity List, the largest single expansion of that list to date. The additions took effect on August 3, 2026, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection began applying a rebuttable presumption of forced labor to their goods.

From September 27, 2026, anyone selling a leather jacket to consumers in the European Union must be able to prove the environmental claims on the label, the hangtag or the product page.

Importers bringing leather jacket shipments into the United States must now file compliance certificate data electronically with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under a Consumer Product Safety Commission rule that took effect on July 8, 2026.

The European Commission's guidelines for the EU's forced labour ban were published in the Official Journal on September 3, 2026, setting out how authorities will police imports of leather jacket supplies once enforcement begins on December 14, 2027.

On May 12, 2026, Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas introduced H.R.8744, the TREE Act, which would make it unlawful to import goods linked to deforestation into the United States from January 1, 2029.

On July 19, 2026, the European Union's ban on destroying unsold consumer products entered into application, and leather apparel is on the list it covers.

Leather jacket suppliers selling into California have a fixed date to plan against. From January 1, 2027, the limit for regulated PFAS in textile articles falls from 100 parts per million to 50 parts per million, measured as total organic fluorine.

Leather jacket buyers building programmes for the United Kingdom now have a dated framework to plan against. On September 2, 2026, the UK government published its approach to deforestation regulations for Great Britain.

Leather jacket buyers selling into the European Union have a fixed compliance date to plan for: October 10, 2026. From that date, entry 79 of Annex XVII to the REACH Regulation restricts PFHxA, its salts and PFHxA-related substances in leather used in clothing and related accessories for the general public.