ICTI certification faced by toy companies

ICTI is the abbreviation of the International Council of Toy Industries. The "ICTI" code refers to the industry standards that the international toy industry must abide by. The International Council of Toy Industries pointed out that the background of the ICTI Code of Business Conduct for the international toy industry was that European and American sellers and consumers wanted to know that the toys they bought were made in an environment that met the requirements. The purpose of ICTI is to vigorously promote the business of toy manufacturers to meet social responsibility standards and meet legal, safe and hygienic requirements, which is extremely important for regulating corporate behavior. Its main content is to adhere to three principles: first, "three no-nos": no underage child labor, no forced labor, and no prisoner labor; second, "four no-nos": no gender, no race, no religion, no community affiliation; third, factories abide by environmental protection laws and regulations. The "three principles" reflect the manufacturers' respect for workers' human rights and personality, and their support for government laws and regulations. It is currently the only relatively comprehensive global toy industry business code.
According to reports, the International Toy Industry Association's ICTI certification of toy companies is mainly carried out by entrusting auditing agencies to certify the companies. In Asia, it has entrusted five licensed auditing agencies in China to audit the "Code of Business Conduct" of companies. These companies will provide training to the companies and conduct tests at different stages. Auditing agencies are dynamic and open, and more qualified agencies will become auditing companies and carry out ICTI certification business for companies.

Toy companies: long-term benefits but short-term cost increases

Toy companies have a positive attitude towards ICTI codes and certification. A company exports toys worth more than 400 million Hong Kong dollars to Europe and the United States each year. If it does not pass ICTI, it will not be able to get orders from customers. Jim Walter, senior vice president of toy seller Mattel, said that all companies dealing with Mattel must participate in the audit activities in 2005 and meet the audit requirements in 2006. Companies that fail to pass will definitely not get orders.

According to the Shenzhen Toy Industry Association, the introduction of this standard has a great impact on Shenzhen toy companies. China is the world's largest toy producer, exporting $6 billion worth of toys annually, 70% of which are exported from Guangdong, and Shenzhen's toy exports account for more than half of Guangdong's total. About 90% of Shenzhen's toys are exported to Europe and the United States, and Shenzhen's exports last year were about $1.8 billion. ICTI's standards will affect the exports of 1,200 companies in Shenzhen. Since ICTI has clear regulations on labor wages, it will greatly increase the cost of companies. Not only companies, but also its strict regulations on restricting workers' overtime will cause dissatisfaction among workers.

ICTI has a greater impact on small companies, but not on large toy companies. Large companies produce toys for large international toy companies such as Walmart and Disney. These companies have very high requirements, so they do not find it particularly difficult to implement ICTI. In the long run, it will be beneficial to the improvement of the industry and the standardization of operations of the entire industry."

Inspection agency: Audit procedures are the "bottleneck" of promotion

China Shenzhen Import and Export Toy Inspection Center said that Shenzhen's toy production and toy exports have always been very standardized. ICTI standards are the general trend, but there are difficulties in the enterprise audit process. At present, ICTI is still in the promotion stage in Shenzhen. Some companies are actively meeting the standards, and no company has been issued a certificate. As an authoritative government inspection agency, she believes that while companies are working hard to master technical standards, they should also pay attention to certification in environmental protection, safe production, etc., because any link may block the company's export channel.

Regarding the specific certification procedures, we learned that if an enterprise needs to pass the ICTI audit, it must first select an audit company approved by the International Toy Industry Association. The audit company will make comments on toy safety, production environment, worker wages, etc., and require when to improve, and then re-audit, and finally pass the audit based on ICTI standards to obtain certification. During this process, the enterprise has to pay fees and re-audit every year.