:00:00. > :00:00.countries. Those are the latest headlines from
:00:00. > :00:18.BBC World News. Now, for the latest financial news with Sally.
:00:19. > :00:27.Guilty as charged ` Credit Suisse is fined $2. 6 billion for helping US
:00:28. > :00:30.clients evade tax. And: The shocking statistic ` forced labour generates
:00:31. > :00:42.profits of over $150 Hello, and welcome. You're with
:00:43. > :00:46.World Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the programme: The
:00:47. > :00:50.man who came in from the cold ` President Putin's plan to sell gas
:00:51. > :00:55.to China. But first: It's the first big bank
:00:56. > :00:59.to admit to tax evasion for two decades ` the Swiss lender Credit
:01:00. > :01:06.Suisse has pleaded guilty to helping some US clients avoid paying taxes
:01:07. > :01:10.to the US government. It's agreed to pay $2. 6 billion in a fine. The
:01:11. > :01:15.punishment is intended to send a strong message to other banks and
:01:16. > :01:18.quiet public criticism. Prosecutors there have been soft on financial
:01:19. > :01:26.institutions. The outcome was a victory for the
:01:27. > :01:30.Justice Department ` Credit Suisse is the biggest bank to plead guilty
:01:31. > :01:35.to criminal charges in the US in more than 20 years. US
:01:36. > :01:38.Attorney`General Erik Holder the bank helped American clients dodge
:01:39. > :01:43.US taxes. In the course of these activities,
:01:44. > :01:46.Credit Suisse desieved the IRS, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and
:01:47. > :01:49.Exchange Commission, as well as the United States Department of Justice.
:01:50. > :01:54.The bank went to elaborate lengths to shield itself, its employees, and
:01:55. > :01:57.the tax cheats that it served from accountability for their criminal
:01:58. > :02:01.actions. As part of the settlement, the Swiss
:02:02. > :02:07.financial giant won't lose its banking licence in the US, but its
:02:08. > :02:13.net profit will be reduced by $1. 8 billion in the second quarter.
:02:14. > :02:16.Credit Suisse chief xisk Brady Dugan said in a statement, "We deeply
:02:17. > :02:20.regret the past misconduct that led to this settlement. Having this
:02:21. > :02:23.matter fully resolved is an important step forward for us. We
:02:24. > :02:31.have seen no material impact on our business in the past several weeks."
:02:32. > :02:36.Mr Dugan already apologised in February to the US Congress. Then,
:02:37. > :02:42.law`makers rebuked the Department of Justice for failing to identify tax
:02:43. > :02:46.dodgers. The department now feels it's made big strides in addressing
:02:47. > :02:50.that. They're providing us with a great deal of additional information
:02:51. > :02:54.that will allow us to determine where those accounts went, how many
:02:55. > :02:57.accounts they had, some of the size of the accounts. There's going to be
:02:58. > :03:01.a substantial amount of information that we're going to get that will
:03:02. > :03:03.enable us to find out who the account holders are and take the
:03:04. > :03:08.appropriate action. But there's no question there's a
:03:09. > :03:12.bigger target here ` and that's the banks. There has been the perception
:03:13. > :03:17.that the US government has failed to crack down on the bad behaviour of
:03:18. > :03:21.banks over the last decade ` not least because of their role in the
:03:22. > :03:27.financial crisis. With this guilty plea from a major international
:03:28. > :03:34.bank, it's clear it's a perception they're trying to alter.
:03:35. > :03:38.That plush hotel, that cheap pair of jeans, that beautifully cooked meal
:03:39. > :03:44.` in some cases, it could be thanks to use of forced labour. New figures
:03:45. > :03:51.from the international labour organisation suggests illegal
:03:52. > :03:55.profits from the trade are as high as $150 billion a year ` two thirds
:03:56. > :04:00.of that figure comes from the sex industry, with the rest primarily
:04:01. > :04:06.from domestic work, agriculture and construction. In fact, construction,
:04:07. > :04:10.mining and manufacturing nets $34 billion in illegal profits for
:04:11. > :04:13.firms, according to the ILO. Agriculture remains one of the
:04:14. > :04:18.biggest offenders, although the overall profits are smaller `
:04:19. > :04:22.estimated to be at $9 billion. Despite attempts to crack down on
:04:23. > :04:28.modern`day slavery, it still exists in the home ` private households
:04:29. > :04:36.save $8 billion a year by not paying or underpaying their staff.
:04:37. > :04:39.The chief of the ILO's unit on fundamental principles and rights at
:04:40. > :04:46.work joins us now from Geneva. Good to have you on the programme. That
:04:47. > :04:51.is a shocking statistic ` $150 billion. The director`general of the
:04:52. > :05:01.ILO is saying, "We have to eradicate this evil. We have to make greater
:05:02. > :05:06.efforts to stamp this out." Easier said than done. How is that tackled?
:05:07. > :05:11.Indeed. Slave labour has absolutely no place in our society. We should
:05:12. > :05:14.be doing our utmost best to eradicate this as a matter of
:05:15. > :05:18.priority. Now comes the question of how to do this. This is one of the
:05:19. > :05:23.reasons that prompted the ILO to come up with this new statistic and
:05:24. > :05:30.to doing more surveys. We need to understand better the root causes `
:05:31. > :05:33.what is prompting victims to be trapped into forced labour? This
:05:34. > :05:39.report is one step in the right direction, which will enable us to
:05:40. > :05:44.guide governments and policymakers into more efficient policies and
:05:45. > :05:47.measures to combat forced labour, by prevention and by protection of
:05:48. > :05:54.victims. Also, a lot of this ` I mean, a lot of this is criminal
:05:55. > :05:59.activity, isn't it? More than half of these are women and girls, a lot
:06:00. > :06:13.of them forced into sex trade. How is that tackled? Because that is
:06:14. > :06:19.happening across Europe, UK, and Asia. Where do you begin? Prevention
:06:20. > :06:29.will be the most cost`effective way in trying to eradicate this
:06:30. > :06:33.phenomenon. A lot of effort needs to be going to pre`departure prevention
:06:34. > :06:37.by raising awareness of the most vulnerable, those are more likely to
:06:38. > :06:44.fall into the trap of forced labour. But we need, also, to be stepping up
:06:45. > :06:51.our efforts to protect victims, by giving them access to effective
:06:52. > :06:57.protective measures, by being more efficient also in enforcing the law
:06:58. > :07:02.in prosecuting those that are currently using forced labour and
:07:03. > :07:06.forced sex workers. It's really a combination of very efficient
:07:07. > :07:09.prevention measures and very effective protection measures of
:07:10. > :07:14.victims, and also getting those that are using forced labour to pay and
:07:15. > :07:18.compensate the victims. All right. Thank you for your time, from the
:07:19. > :07:20.International Labour Organisation. Of course, there is so much more to
:07:21. > :07:25.discuss. Unfortunately, we haven't got time at the moment. There's more
:07:26. > :07:29.on that story on our website. Let's talk about these two gentlemen
:07:30. > :07:34.` the heads of state of both Russia and China came face to face today at
:07:35. > :07:39.a summit in Shanghai. It's widely sprct expected that, over the next
:07:40. > :07:45.two days, they'll sign a huge deal on gas supplies. Under the deal,
:07:46. > :07:48.Russia would export to China 38 billion cubic metres of gas per year
:07:49. > :07:53.` equivalent of a third that it exports to Europe. Russia is keen
:07:54. > :08:00.for a second big gas market besides Europe. Would it spell a new era in
:08:01. > :08:04.Russian`Chinese relations? Increasingly, Chinese cities are
:08:05. > :08:08.becoming enveloped in smog, produced by the huge amounts of coal the
:08:09. > :08:15.country burns to drive its economy. It wants to import cleaner fuels,
:08:16. > :08:19.like gas. Russia is offering to supply approximately a tenth of the
:08:20. > :08:25.gas China needs for the next 30 years. To do this, Russia's Gazprom
:08:26. > :08:29.will deliver gas from felsds in the far east of the country via a new
:08:30. > :08:34.pipeline thousands of miles long. This plan goes back ten years, but
:08:35. > :08:38.has been held up by arguments over the price China would pay. Recently,
:08:39. > :08:43.however, Russia has seemed much keener to push the deal through. The
:08:44. > :08:46.crisis in Ukraine and the resulting tensions between Europe and Russia,
:08:47. > :08:49.including over gas supply, have, I think, increased from the Russian
:08:50. > :08:54.point of view, the political importance of demonstrating that it
:08:55. > :08:59.has a major long`term second market for its gas. The gas which China
:09:00. > :09:02.would get comes from the far eastern part of Russia and would not have
:09:03. > :09:07.been marketed in Europe, and so there's no question of countries
:09:08. > :09:12.there being deprived in future of the gas supplies they currently get.
:09:13. > :09:17.But some wonder whether Russia ` after striking a big commercial deal
:09:18. > :09:21.with China ` would aim to develop closer political ties. China is
:09:22. > :09:27.still on pretty good terms with the United States, pretty good terms
:09:28. > :09:33.with the EU, pretty good terms with a lot of African countries. Russia,
:09:34. > :09:37.after this Crimea and Ukraine crisis, has been caught isolated ``
:09:38. > :09:42.quite isolated. From the Russians' point of view, it is important to
:09:43. > :09:47.have some sort of support and ally from China. However, China, for its
:09:48. > :09:52.part, will have to wait a long time for the benefits of Russian gas.
:09:53. > :09:58.It'll take years for the new fields to be developed and for the pipeline
:09:59. > :10:05.to be laid, and the first gas would only arrive in China by 2018 at the
:10:06. > :10:07.earliest. A quick look at the Asian markets
:10:08. > :10:08.now: earliest.
:10:09. > :10:11.A quick look at the Asian markets In Japan, shares rose from a one`month
:10:12. > :10:16.low. Thailand's caught a lot of the attention. You can see a mixed
:10:17. > :10:21.picture there. In Thailand, the markets fell ` the bot weakened
:10:22. > :10:24.because of the situation emerging there.
:10:25. > :10:34.That's World Business Report. I'll see you soon.
:10:35. > :10:39.Thanks to Sally for that. We will get to the papers in a moment.
:10:40. > :10:43.First: Thousands of schoolchildren from England are beginning to
:10:44. > :10:45.commemorate the centenary of the First World War by taking special
:10:46. > :10:49.tours of battlefields in Belgium and France. The tours are part of a
:10:50. > :10:50.government`funded programme to