Why we need an industry charter on buying practices

Must we keep on making the same old mistakes? Last year during the pandemic, I wrote extensively about the issue of purchasing practices and their impact on garment supply chains and their workers. The pandemic, as we found out, proved a fertile ground for some retailers (some but by no means all) to ride roughshod over the issue of purchasing practices. This included refusing to pay for complete and in-progress orders, extending their payment terms (often to 90 days or more) and demanding huge discounts on orders.