Abstract: Current European and American restrictions on harmful substances in textiles are introduced in this paper and the developing trend of these restrictions is analyzed. On one hand, the existing limit values of harmful substances are being reduced, newly restricted harmful substance are being added continuously.On the other hand, restrictions of EU and US on harmful substances are affecting and permeating each other. Based on these analyses, countermeasures for coping with these restrictions, such as strengthen the identification of the harmful substances in the whole textile supply, are proposed, which are significant for promoting the development and improving the international competiveness of the Chinese textile industry.

Key words: textiles; limit of harmful substances; trend; countermeasures