Key Audit Deadlines for Chinese New Year 2023

What’s happening?

The Ethical Toy Program understands that as the Chinese New Year approaches, most factories located in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan will temporarily cease production as they close for the festive period and many workers take holiday to reunite with family back in their hometowns.

In order to allow time for Chinese New Year 2023 celebrations, the Ethical Toy Program will instruct our accredited firms to not conduct audits and Progress Visits from 9th Jan to 5th Feb 2023. (2 weeks prior to and 2 weeks after Chinese New Year).

Please note that these arrangements only apply to factories located in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Audit and Progress Visit arrangements for other parts of the world will be unaffected.

What do I need to do?

We ask all factories located in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to please pay attention to the following dates:

• Last audit/PV date before Chinese New Year: 6th Jan 2023 (Fri)
• First audit/PV date after Chinese New Year: 6th Feb 2023 (Mon)

Initial Annual Audits (IAA) will be conducted 1 month after the completion of the application process*. We encourage factories to pay attention to the expiry date of their certifications and start the application process in advance with the consideration of the black-out period, if not their certifications might expire during the period in which we are not conducting audits.

• Certifications will be expired in between January and February 2023: It is suggested to finish the registration process before 30th Nov 2022.
• Certifications will be expired in between March and April 2023: It is suggested to finish the registration process before 31st Dec 2022.

*Completed application process means the registration has been verified by the Ethical Toy Program and the factory has settled the audit fee to the assigned audit firm.

Should you have any questions, please contact us at (+852) 2111-2462 or via info@ethicaltoyprogram.org.