Throughout the 20th century, the global clothing industry experienced major geographical shifts, new forms of governance, changing producer and buyer relations and unevenly distributed outcomes for countries, firms and workers. This paper contextualises these global dynamics in regard to the ways in which trade policy and rules create strong regional patterns in global clothing production networks. The focus is on trade policy as both context for, and driver of, the spatial divisions of manufacture and work. It further provides an empirical overview of the ways in which trade regimes, preferential market access, regional trade agreements and rules of origin structure the division of labour and developmental opportunities and constraints in various clothing producing regions.