When the Business and Human Rights Centre queried 25 of the U.S. market’s biggest fashion companies—including Gap Inc., H&M Group, Nike and Zara owner Inditex—about labor impacts from President Donald Trump’s erratic tariff rollout, not a single brand responded, not even to decline.

This was a first for the organization, said Mayisha Begum, BHRC’s labor program officer.

A year after “Liberation Day” hit partner nations with 10-50 percent additional levies, driving brands to decamp to cheaper locales or demand price cuts so steep that suppliers could only meet them by slashing wages, a black hole of information has made it difficult to assess the extent of the damage to garment workers ‘ livelihoods.

While brands wielded similar contractual clout during Covid-19 to axe mid-production orders and impose discounts on shipments already en route, today’s lack of transparency is harder to penetrate, Begum said.

“During Covid, there was more visibility into where orders were being canceled and shifted, which…