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The Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) was established in 1974 to regulate global trade in textile and apparel products. Under the MFA, Canada, the US, and the European Union (EU) could set limits, called quotas, on the amount of foreign made apparel and textiles they would allow into their countries from any specific producing country. Since 1974, import quotas have been applied to 73 countries in the global South, mostly in Asia.
In 1995, the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) came into effect, under which quotas were phased out in four stages over a ten-year period and eliminated on January 1, 2005.
January 1, 2005 marked a new era in the world garment industry.
The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) has been promoting the development of new strategies and alliances to deal with the negative fall-out caused by the elimination of the import quota system and to put labour standards on the agenda in this highly competitive, post-quota environment.
To help strengthen the capacity of local groups to build national alliances and put forward their own demands, MSN is producing educational resource materials, providing resource people for workshops in garment-producing countries, and helping to organize public forums in Central America, Thailand, Mexico and Canada.
At the international level, MSN is part of a multi-stakeholder initiative called the MFA Forum, which brings together retailers and brands, trade unions, NGOs, and national and multi-lateral public institutions to identify and promote collaborative strategies to support vulnerable national garment industries and greater respect for workers' rights.
(October 2006) As apparel brands and retailers restructure their global supply chains after the demise of the import quota system that was established under a trade agreement called the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), MSN is receiving almost daily reports from countries around the world of factory closures and massive worker layoffs. It's time to assess what companies are doing in practice, as well as what they should be doing, to live up to their responsibilities to affected workers and communities.
Coming ten months after the demise of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), the Asia-Latina Women's Exchange was designed to give participants an opportunity to share what the end of the import quota system has meant for workers and communities in Thailand, China/Hong Kong, Cambodia, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and the Dominican Republic and to discuss strategies for better defending workers' rights in a post-quota industry.
On August 18, 2005, MSN and the Mexican women's organization MUTUAC co-sponsored a one-day conference entitled "What lies ahead for the Mexican garment and textile industry? The impact of end of the MFA on the industry and labour rights" featuring presentations by representatives of Mexican garment manufacturing firms, the Mexican government, national and international labour organizations, leading international brands, and Mexican labour rights organizations. Read about it here.
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