Between 2003 and 2008, MSN put a great deal of attention to analyzing and mapping the potential and actual impacts of the 2005 end of the global import quota system under the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA).

The 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. 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.

During and after the quota phase-out, MSN promoted the development of new strategies and alliances to deal with the negative fall-out 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 produced educational resource materials, provided resource people for workshops in garment-producing countries, and helped to organize public forums in Central America, Thailand, Mexico and Canada.

MSN also published a number of studies on the impact of the quota phase out on garment workers, and sponsored South-South exchanges in which women’s and labour rights organizations came together to map the impacts of the end of quotas on garment workers and discussed possible strategies to improve respect for garment workers’ rights in the post-quota era.

In early 2004, MSN helped to found the MFA Forum, a multi-stakeholder learning forum to identify and promote collaborative strategies to support vulnerable national garment industries and greater respect for workers' rights in the post-quota period. The MFA Forum brought together international apparel companies, national and multi-lateral public institutions, and trade union and non-governmental organizations to seek solutions to problems caused by the end of quotas, including factory closures.

In June 2005, the Forum published its Collaborative Framework which identified the responsibilities of garment companies, governments, unions and NGOs to mitigate the negative impacts of the MFA phase-out on national garment industries and garment workers. In 2008, the MFA Forum adopted a set of Guidelines for Managing Responsible Transitions, outlining the steps apparel brands and manufacturers should take in the post-quota transition period when there is a danger of or an actual factory closure and before shifting production or orders out of a country or into a new country.

Much of the Forum’s work focused on promoting collaborative action in garment-producing countries, such as Bangladesh, Lesotho, Morocco and Mexico, where it was assumed the quota phase-out would have a negative impact.

Although the MFA Forum was disbanded in 2010, two of its initiatives, the Americas Group and the Americas Group’s Mexico Committee, continued their work after that year, and MSN continued to play a leading role in both.