fashion: Agreement on Sustainable Garment and Textile

under the global agreement (5years) with several countries including: Bangladesh and The Netherlands, The aims of the arrangements in this Agreement are:

to achieve substantial progress towards improving the situation for groups experiencing adverse impacts in respect of specific risks in the garment and textile production or supply chain within 3-5 years;

to provide individual enterprises with guidelines for preventing their own operation or business relationships from having a (potential) adverse impact in the production or supply chain and for resisting it if it does arise;

to develop joint activities and projects to address problems that enterprises in the garment and textile sector cannot resolve completely and/or on their own.

By doing business via international production or supply chains, enterprises may become involved, directly or indirectly, in a variety of potential or existing social, animal welfare and environmental issues. Every enterprise can take measures within its own operational management, but many problems cannot be fully resolved at the level of an individual enterprise alone. In these cases, enterprises can cooperate with other enterprises, public bodies, trade unions and civil-society organisations in collective projects, within which the Parties undertake to achieve tangible results.

The Parties have identified nine specific themes by mutual agreement and in discussion with stakeholders which currently merit the priority attention of enterprises in the garment and textile sector operating in the Netherlands in terms of international responsible business conduct. These themes are, in no particular order:

1. Discrimination and gender;
2. Child labour;
3. Forced labour;
4. Freedom of association;
5. Living wage;
6. Safety and health in the workplace;
7. Raw materials;
8. Water pollution and use of chemicals, water and energy;
9. Animal welfare.

The Parties will expect participating enterprises to perform due diligence and to focus particular attention on these themes. This means that, with regard to these themes, they will identify any possible adverse impact, set specific objectives and take measures which are suitable in the light of the insights resulting from their due diligence process. If they decide in their action plan not to take measures (as yet) or to take other measures equivalent to the measures described below by the Parties in this section in respect of one or more of the specified themes, they must explain clearly why they have taken these decisions.

The selection of nine themes was made jointly by the parties based on the actual impact on the garment and textile sector. When individual enterprises conduct their due diligence process, it cannot be ruled out that they will also encounter other problems in their production or supply chain, such as land grabs or corruption. When that is the case, enterprises will include them in their annual individual action plan.

the themes break down as follows:

Elements of the context that make it a priority theme;

Which goal worth trying to achieve they endorse;

What measures Parties expect from individual enterprises. The rule is: comply or explain Where known: 

which collective projects an enterprise can join when the solution of a problem is beyond the scope of its individual operational management. Arrangements the Parties make among themselves to promote the goal described. Priorities, allocation of roles, planning and timescale will be determined jointly by the parties once the Agreement has entered into force.

As part of this Agreement, the signatory enterprises will assume the following obligations:

to explicitly include the following themes in the principles for their own policy on international responsible business conduct: Discrimination and Gender, Child Labour, Forced Labour, Freedom of Association, Living Wage, Safety and Health in the Workplace, Raw Materials, Water Pollution and the Use of Chemicals, Water and Energy and Animal Welfare;

to communicate their intentions and objectives to their suppliers and chain partners and to formulate and achieve measurable results in collaboration with their suppliers;

to conduct due diligence in a manner which is consistent with their size and business circumstances, within one year after signing the Agreement;

to submit the action plan that they prepare within this due diligence process to the AGT Secretariat on an annual basis for assessment/approval and declare themselves to be in agreement with the assessment/approval of their action plan by the AGT Secretariat, as described in Section 1 and Appendix 4 of the Agreement;

in their annual action plan they will explicitly discuss:

•  the insight that they have gained into their production or supply chain
• through the due diligence process and the possible impacts in their
• supply chain in terms of the UNGPs and the OECD Guidelines;
•  how their own purchasing process (delivery times, pricing, duration of contracts, etc.) contributes to potential (risks of) adverse impacts and
• measures to be taken to mitigate them;
• the policy they are pursuing and the measures they are taking with
• regard to the nine themes prioritised by the Parties and how they will participate in the collective projects formulated by the Parties for these themes which are consistent with the substantial risks found in these themes (see Appendix 1);
• formulating quantitative and qualitative objectives and measurable results in terms of improvements for the duration of the Agreement, broken down into objectives after 3 and 5 years.

from Year 1:

•  the countries where their products (Cut, Make, Trim (CMT) and vertically integrated enterprises) are manufactured;
• or each country: the production locations (names and addresses) and production processes concerned and turnover (as a percentage of their own turnover and in euro); 
• from Year 2:
•  the raw materials used in their collections and the risks identified in the use of these raw materials. 
• All disputes arising between one or more Parties to the Agreement and the enterprise concerned with regard to the failure by the enterprise concerned to comply, in a timely manner or at all, with the binding advice of the Complaints and Disputes Committee concerning a dispute shall be settled in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the Netherlands Arbitration Institute.
• When settling disputes, the Netherlands Arbitration Institute shall review marginally whether the enterprise concerned has complied with the binding advice of the Complaints and Disputes Committee in a timely manner or at all.
• The parties in arbitration proceedings as specified above shall be the enterprise concerned and one or more Parties to the Agreement. Either party may appear as the claimant or the defendant. The arbitration tribunal shall in principle be composed of three arbitrators. The parties in the dispute may also agree that one arbitrator will suffice. The arbitration tribunal shall be appointed according to the list procedure. o The place of arbitration shall be The Hague, the Netherlands.The arbitrator(s) shall decide as amiable compositeur.

from Year 3 at the latest:

the subsequent links in their production or supply chain (including raw material suppliers, spinning mills, weaving mills and dye works); o from the second year of participation, to report on the results of the plan for the previous year.

• to agree to the preparation by the AGT Secretariat of an aggregated report and benchmark for publication by the Steering Group.
• to communicate in public by the third year of participation in the Agreement, in accordance with what has been agreed by the Steering Group with regard to substantive information to be published;
• to agree to the working methods of the complaints and disputes mechanism which the Parties have established under this Agreement;