Brussels, 31 March 2016. The Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) - supporting 1,700 retail, brand and importing companies to improve working conditions in factories and farms worldwide- and Initiative Clause Sociale (ICS) -representing 20 major French and Belgian retailers working to improve sustainability in global supply chains- are pleased to announce that following almost one year of discussions they have made successful progress in uniting their efforts. Having agreed on a common vision for the future, the negotiation phase has been concluded, giving way to the final implementation stage of the merger, which will become effective on 1 January 2017.

The exercise which started in April 2015 has enabled both initiatives to agree on a common vision of sustainable supply chains, based on the values of transparency and responsibility. Having reached a mutual understanding and an agreement on their future integration, the discussions will now focus on the implementation phase of the merger, in which operational matters related to the integration and equivalence of audits, systems and platforms will be clarified.

Christian Ewert, Director General of the Foreign Trade Association (FTA) – the umbrella organisation of BSCI – said: “The positive results achieved so far confirm that the decision to embark together on this project was the right move for both organisations. The merger will provide greater leverage for our members to drive forward social compliance and will consolidate the efforts of both initiatives towards greater impact”.

Both parties expect the implementation phase to be concluded by the end of 2016, paving the way for the merger to become effective as of 1 January 2017.

Read more:

Social Compliance Initiatives BSCI and ICS Work Towards Merging Their Efforts (2 April 2015)

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For further information, please contact:

Stephanie Luong
FTA Head of Communications
stephanie.luong@fta-intl.org
Tel: +32 2 741 64 09

Carole Hommey
ICS Coordinator
chommey@fcd.fr
Tel : +33 6 89 42 20 90

The Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) is a business-driven initiative that supports over 1,700 retailers, importers and brand companies to improve working conditions in factories and farms worldwide. BSCI offers companies, from multinationals to SMEs, one common Code of Conduct and a holistic system towards social compliance in the supply chain applicable to all sectors and sourcing countries. BSCI is an initiative of the Foreign Trade Association (FTA), a leading business association of European and international commerce that promotes the values of free trade and sustainable supply chains. www.bsci-intl.org  / www.fta-intl.org

Initiative Clause Sociale (ICS) was created under the auspice of French Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD). ICS is a work group that provides its members with shared tools for implementing their social audit programmes, enabling joint management of suppliers and preventing duplicate audits. Today, the initiative has 20 active members. Members of ICS work together to sustainably improve working conditions in their supply chain and support responsible suppliers, to make them agents of their progressive approach. www.ics-asso.org