On March 28, in Hong Kong, the International Council of Tanners approved the new Guidelines for the Acquisition of the First Tannery Material. Among them, there is the report of the actual weight of raw leather instead of estimates; the updating of commercial-standard tolerances to market reality; traceability data of the leather such as, for example, country of origin, province or region of the slaughterhouse. These guidelines are the result of a process that begun during the biennial presidency of the Italian Rino Mastrotto and concluded by his successor, the Taiwanese Richard Pai. The purpose of the guidelines is to suggest to individual business operators how to modify or integrate raw material sales contracts. In this regard, ICHSLTA (International Gendarmerie Association) chairman Stephen Sothmann, who in the past did not apply for the renewal of Contract no. 6, recalled with a note that “the agreement remains valid, while the terms of individual agreements are negotiated by vendors and buyers from time to time, as always. We hope to continue collaborating with ICT on updating the lexicon of the document in the future.” The official publication of the guidelines took place on 2 May.
Transparency, origin, franchise: The ICT sets guidelines for purchasing the raw product. ICHSLTA pushes back: ”Agreement No.6 remains valid.”
