The worldwide leading voluntary sustainability standard for the post-harvest textile value chain for certified organic fibres, covering environmental criteria, human rights, social criteria and business conduct.
") investigated government policy options for a [sustainable fashion](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/sustainable-fashion "Test!
") industry together with other stakeholder organizations and high ranking EU officials. In accordance with GOTS’ general policy, the GOTS representatives maintained that “a voluntary global [standard](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/standard "standard glossary text
"), set in partnership with international stakeholder communities, ensures widespread global acceptance; in contrast to mere national [standards](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/standard "standard glossary text
"), it also helps to remove barriers to international trade.” [(see GOTS Mission Statement). ](https://gots.vorschau.website/about-us/visionmission.html)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)](https://gots.vorschau.website/images/news/archiv/stories/gots_news_febr_2012.pdf). 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](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/organic "'Organic' is a regulated term used to distinguish systems of managed production and products derived therefrom that adhere to principles of health, ecology, fairness and care, and which are certified compliant to an organic standard's regulations by an Approved Certification Body.
GOTS defines organic textiles as being made with fibres from organic agriculture systems that are certified to one of the IFOAM Family of Standards, and that are processed in socially and ecologically responsible ways, in alignment with organic principles.