I hope there is only one universal verification standard internationally.

Verify uniform standards

Currently, two-thirds of the world's suppliers have to pass BSCI audits. However, the goal of unification is still far away.

"BSCI cannot be carried out alone. Now countries that care about corporate social responsibility have organized roundtable meetings where everyone can sit down and discuss how to unify the standards to reduce the burden on companies," said Cooper.

In fact, another purpose of Cooper's visit was to cooperate with the China National Textile and Apparel Council on the issue of standard unification.

Wei Yanxia from the Social Responsibility Construction Promotion Office of the China Textile Industry Association told reporters that CSC9000 for the domestic textile industry is a standard developed by the Chinese themselves.

"As an industry association, we have our own system, CSC9000, which is a practical system we developed based on the conditions of our industry. But foreign parties have their own requirements. They purchase a large number of goods from China every year, so we can understand why they actively help Chinese companies fulfill their corporate social responsibility requirements." Wei Yanxia said.

What makes BSCI different from other standards is that it doesn't even have a certificate. Cooper said it may be more like a service, which is in line with China's national conditions.

In this regard, Cooper gave an example, such as the issue of overtime work, which has always been a concern for buyers. He believes that the current BSCI has strengthened the transparency of both buyers and suppliers, because many times overtime work is caused by unreasonable demands from buyers, and the problem cannot be simply attributed to suppliers’ failure to comply with social responsibilities.

"We are willing to cooperate with BSCI because some of the previous standards were based on continuous factory inspections. This approach does not conform to our national conditions and cannot help companies establish long-term mechanisms and improve overall management levels," said Wei Yanxia.

Only by improving the overall level can Chinese companies cope with different factory inspection criteria. This is the problem that standards such as BSCI and CSC9000 need to help Chinese companies solve.

"Through fine-tuning, we can cope with different standards and keep ourselves at a certain level, so that we won't be exhausted by dealing with factory inspections." Cooper's statement received applause from the participants.

However, he also said that BSCI only represents the European standard. The International Organization for Standardization is now developing ISO26000, which is expected to become a unified standard in the field of corporate social responsibility.

"By then, factory inspection will no longer be an embarrassing matter, and we can easily do it without cheating." At the end of his speech, Cooper ended with a little joke.