German Government Plans to Force Textile Sector Into Sustainable Supply Chains

For years, the German government has tried to encourage local companies to improve their supply chains, to take care of the environment and workers’ rights. But some politicians say that not enough is happening, nor is it happening fast enough. So they have suggested that if businesses don’t start behaving, tough new laws could force them to. A version of one of those laws — the Sustainable Supply Chain Law, drafted by the German Ministry for Economic Development — caused headlines and outrage when it leaked mid-February. “Nonsense” was how the head of the national association of German employers described it. “Demotivating…saber-rattling,” the Africa Association of German Business complained. Development minister Gerd Müller was unapologetic. “It is shameful that I still have to stand up in front of industry associations and argue against child labor,” Müller said in a January interview. “Company bosses tell me they cannot control their supply chains. That’s rubbish.” As Bärbel Kofler, the German government’s commissioner for human rights, said recently: “the era of voluntary action is at an end.” The new law would have an outsize impact on the textile and fashion sector and, as a spokesperson from the Confederation of the German Textile and Fashion Industry told WWD, they

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