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The MFA Forum's Collaborative Framework for Guiding Post-MFA Actions identifies the roles and responsibilities of companies, governments, international institutions and trade unions and NGOs during the post-quota period.
This article provides an overview of apparel politics in Central America and the Caribbean, with a particular focus on the Dominican Republic, in light of the 2005 phase-out of the MFA quota system and implementation of DR-CAFTA. It includes an analysis of transnational organizing to protect labour rights in the region.
Download After Sweatshops? Apparel politics in the circum‐Caribbean
In the Summer of 2008, the Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) carried out interviews with apparel companies about changes in their sourcing practices since the demise of the import quota system at the end of 2004, as well as possible changes in the next five-year period. Interviewees were also asked what changes in production practices and/or government policy would encourage them to maintain or increase orders to Central America and/or Mexico.
Collected by MSN, this presentation shows statistics that highlight the decline of Mexico's garment industry since the end of the Multi-fiber Arrangement.
(March 2007) Although price remains the main factor in sourcing decisions, brands are also concerned with guaranteeing that their products reach stores at the right time. According to brand representatives, instability in different countries also motivates brands to keep work in different countries located in different regions. For brands selling in the US market, it is quite likely that their strategies first divide suppliers into two big categories: Asia/Americas.
(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.
A brief look at the future of the garment industry in post-quota Mexico based on the findings of a one-day conference entitled, "What lies ahead for the Mexican garment and textile 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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