10/07/2013 World Business Report

Those are the latest headlines from BBC News.

Now for the latest financial news with Sally Bundock and World

Business Report. US retailers come up with their own

plan to improve conditions in factories in Bangladesh.

Britain is set for the biggest privatisation in over a decade as

the Government outlines its plans to sell off the Royal Mail.

Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the

programme: China's exports miss expectations and fall for the first

time in 17 months, adding to concerns about weakness in the

recovery of the world's second-largest economy.

But first, horrific pictures that shocked the world. When a

Bangladeshi garment factory collapsed in April, killing more

than 1,200 people, it was clear something needed to be done to

improve the working conditions in the country's 5,000 factories or

more. European retailers agreed to an international pact designed to

improve safety standards but many American companies - including the

worlds biggest retailer Walmart - did not sign up to the deal. --

world's. Now a coalition of US retailers and garment makers have

come up with an alternative plan and will announce the details today.

We'll get the reaction from Bangladesh in a moment.

But first, Samira Hussain reports from New York.

Since the collapse of the garment factory, there has been a push for

Western retailers to take responsibility for the working

conditions in the factories. For months, companies like Walmart and

target have been working together to come up with an agreement that would

improve fire and safety regulations in these factories. The problem is,

an international pact already exists. While the European retailers

have signed on to. European companies like hate and am. American

companies are not on to it. They said it would leave them to

vulnerable to lawsuits. They have come up with their own agreement.

But the problem with that is that we will now have an American agreement

and an international one. Their breath and to protect workers in

Bangladesh but there are two set of rules and two set of standards to

adhere to, bikini drop of protecting the workers that much more

difficult. So how has this news been received

in Bangladesh? Our reporter Mahfuz Sadique is in the Bangladeshi

capital, Dhaka. Could this be too complicated for

those running factories in Bangladesh to implement? The garment

Association does say that they feel that these are two deals can be

worked together. On the European pact, they feel they were not

consulted in the decision-making process. If there are disputes in

the future, they feel they cannot act as arbitrators. From the trade

union point of view, the workers themselves, I have spoken to some of

the leaders. They say that all of the safety packs as well as the

European Union contacts, they are good measures. They welcome them. At

the same time, there are sceptical because the government has delivered

similar measures before but have not delivered. What has changed since

April? There is renewed pressure from various quarters including

retailers and Western governments, the European Union, the US. There

has been announced suspension of trade benefits of Bangladesh. There

the government to show that it is doing enough, giving labour rights

to the workers in response to the incident. But observers do feel that

with the scale of industry, and the complexities involved, the lack of

resources, whether these measures by the government at the moment are

going to be enough, there is scepticism. Thank you.

I am sure you know what that is. E-mail is the form of communication

that is more popular now. But Britain is expected to push ahead

with its biggest privatisation in decades. It will unveil plans today

for a �2.5 billion stock listing of the state postal operator Royal

Mail. Around 150,000 postal workers will receive free shares and we'll

also find out how others can buy shares if they wish. The main postal

union remains opposed to privatisation and has announced

plans to ballot for industrial valued at up to �3 billion. -- Royal

mail. The postal union is but privatisation. This week, it took

the message to the city and the banks that stand to make millions

from the sale. The union plans to ballot for industrial action, which

could lead to strikes in the autumn, which is when they sell-off is

expected to happen. We don't make apologies. To add offending members.

We know the sale of the Royal mail will be attacked. That is why we are

fighting the sale. It is bad for the workforce. The union is worried

about competition. The rival postal firm TNT has 1000 postman on the

streets of London. They had to 20,000 around the UK in five years

time. -- they hope to have around 20,000 in the UK.

If you were a gambler and placed your bets on where the Chinese

economy is headed, then you may need to give up on following economists'

predictions. The majority have got it wrong again. In the month of

June, exports and imports were expected to rise. Actually exports

fell by just over 3% and imports dropped slightly as well. Rico Hizon

is in Singapore for us to make sense of this data.

Perhaps we should get your predictions. They might be better.

It goes to show China's economic numbers have now become so

unpredictable with the predictions of economists being off target. It

is a decline in those months. This is a reinforcing sign of an economic

slowdown in the second quarter. How did this happen? There was a

crackdown on the use of fake export shipment documents, closing a

loophole for short-term money inflows that had basically

exaggerated China's export performance. There are getting their

paperwork straight. It is good for the long-term. It is all about

transparency, broke into China's exports. -- breaking down China's

export. Going forward, analysts say China's exports face challenges. You

have the appreciation of the US dollar and the Chinese government's

recent crackdown on speculative industries.

South Koreans have crossed over into North Korea today to visit the joint

industrial zone at Kaesong for the first time in three months. The

industrial zone, which is run jointly by the two Koreas, was

shuttered in April during weeks of high tension on the Peninsula. The