On June 8, 2005 an international multi-stakeholder initiative called the MFA Forum, in which MSN participated, released its Collaborative Framework on the roles and responsibilities of companies, governments, international institutions and trade unions and NGOs during the period after the elimination of import quotas for the apparel and textile sectors on January 1, 2005.

The MFA Forum brought together retailers and brands, trade unions, NGOs, and national and multilateral public institutions to identify and promote collaborative strategies to support vulnerable national garment industries and greater respect for workers' rights in the post-quota period. Forum participants engaged in projects to test the application of this framework in Bangladesh, Lesotho, and Morocco, and created a Responsible Transitions Working Group to collectively address the impacts of factory closures and industry restructuring. MSN also participated actively in an Americas Working Group to address issues of responsible competitiveness in Mexico and Central America.

MSN participated in the Forum because we saw it as an opportunity to encourage apparel companies to make labour standards compliance an important factor in their sourcing decisions during the period of consolidation and restructuring. Through our participation in the forum, we encouraged governments in garment-producing countries to see enforcement of labour standards as a way of attracting and keeping orders from brand-sensitive companies.

The following companies, organizations, and institutions participated in the MFA Forum:

• MSN's Resource Materials on the MFA phase-out