it is david good of our staff toast reach to not only harm to be $3800.00 but with hospitals and morgues overwhelmed with the true extent of the tragedy believed to be. the world news of the broad. next. one which course a. video. anytime anywhere. is. a measure of how many push. ups are. climb

a tree different story this is my plan for. one week. before i can really guess. we still have time to. run during. fairtrade sales fall for the 1st time in 20 years we tell you what that means for fair trade producers and small holders around the world. also on the show the e.u. suspends its controversial investment deal with china as relations worsened between the 2 sides over chinese. and hong kong. this is the business i'm on in berlin so happy you can join us. for the 1st time in 20 years

sales of fair trade products in germany have dipped that says the pandemic left big buyers like restaurant shuttered coffee and chocolate are along the most popular fair trade goods hit by covert 19 but the concern isn't just for the businesses behind the products rather the producers who are mostly in africa asia and south america will speak to the c.e.o. of fair trade international in a moment but 1st this report. decent prices and good working conditions are at the core of the fair trade philosophy. but the pandemic has left its mark last year german spent just under 2000000000 euros on fairly traded products a drop of 5 percent compared to the year before. there were some goods that bucked the trend however sales of fairtrade roses mainly from east africa grew significantly in germany during the crisis. year olds are one year or

3 roses bought in germany is fair trade that's a major success of support for the fall in particular virginia and ethiopia fairtrade premium meant that when the flour plantations have to close the workers were able to benefit from a short time mortal scheme and those who feel the. talk about also thought. that said the pandemic has had a major impact on local production between workers falling ill repeated lock downs and rising transport costs many small businesses in africa have been struggling to make ends meet those focusing on fair trade have been no exception. welcome back to that story in just a moment for now some of the other global business stories making news. sudan has secured a bridge loan from 3 european countries which will allow it to settle its debts with the african development bank it's sudan's latest step in settling $50000000000.00 of debt the bank praise sudan's recent sweeping economic reforms.

general motors has reported higher 1st quarter profits despite a shortage of computer ships that has slowed global auto manufacturing the u.s. government says it hopes taiwanese chip manufacturers will allocate some of their supply to american companies. the rocky road to ratification just got rockier the e.u. has shelved its efforts to win approval for its massive investment deal with china after tit for tat sanctions were imposed over beijing's treatment of its weaker population european commission vice president valdis dombrovskis said choose day that future efforts to ratify the deal depended on how broader you china relations evolves the investment pact was pushed through by german chancellor angela merkel in december but had been expected to face opposition in the european parliament.

now amid this atmosphere of growing mistrust the european commission is also moving to tighten rules on foreign investment with china in mind one key aim is to limit the ability of companies supported by foreign state subsidies to buy businesses here's the e.u. competition chief mark rey deficit until now companies have been free to use foreign subsidies to buy up businesses here in europe. some of being able to undercut their competitors in public tenders not because they're more efficient but because they get financial support from foreign countries and that's not fair to watch those companies who do not get that kind of subsidies. now staying with china it is of course a leader in a tunnel this driving technology that giant baidu has now launched a robo taxi in beijing a bid to become the 1st commercially viable driverless taxi service here's

a look. beijing taxi drivers are famous for their banter how a robot compete here in beijing shogun park to find out a fleet of 10 driverless apollo robo taxis pick up and drop off passengers at 8 stops. tech firm by do better known as a search engine than a robot car operator has staged autonomous driving demonstrations before but this is the 1st time that no one is behind the wheel although a safety monitor is sitting in the front passenger seat in case of emergency driverless taxi operations are in a park on the side of a former steel plant to avoid beijing traffic hailing a robot taxi straightforward passengers call a cab in the apollo go up and scan the health code the taxi only moves after detecting passengers and fasten their seat belts. to anyone here when driving we've all had experiences like other cars jumping ahead in the queue or changing lanes suddenly people have emotions why robots don't at least for now maybe the robots

won't be able to calculate and deal with the emotion changes. and i go. by do plans to expand the apollo go robo taxi service to 30 cities in the next 3 years. tesla's new factory near berlin is key to its european expansion but work has slowed there lately with a planned july opening bell push to the fault in the fast moving electric car market where big brands are gearing up to challenge has every delay is cause for concern. authorized personnel only here at the site of tesla's new plant under construction just outside berlin this fire safety contractor is excited to be allowed in because as a mosque is my 1st time here we got a call because they're having some difficulties they want us to take a look at argo which is what was once the plant is almost finished but it still lacks final approval by the regional environmental authorities a sign of the snail's pace of german bureaucracy if it is i told you i think it's

sad actually officials in germany need to be a bit quicker and in cases like this push things through if we're going to get something innovative like this we need to adapt a bit and move things along on its own possible guscott the addition of a huge battery factory next to the car plant means yet another round of approvals and permits are required the site was plans to open in july 1 report suggested it may not open until january 2022 tesla says in october opening is the new plant whenever the plant finally opens the model why earmarked for production of the new factory will be key to tesla's growth strategy we think well why will. will be any in the world and only next year it's an optimistic forecast but carrick spirit said the risk for dominance in the economy is far from over especially in europe. is he gets a little all these classic automakers are building electric vehicles these days

folks wagon is moving full speed ahead i know what that means the competition has become very very steep. one car buyers here are more likely to turn to the tried and trusted brands love engine how to buy emerged that will make it harder for tesla to grow in europe. you know. locals are watching closely to see what happens next environmentalists are worried the plant is partly located inside a drinking water reservoir raising serious concerns over future water consumption and possible shortages but the local economy needs a growth spurt the population here has declined for years as people move away for work take who are taking view the old with the high tech automotive industry means more industrial jobs they need all sorts of industrial suppliers the plant will attract service providers that's an opportunity for mid-size companies to fill orders and take part in the project for. this man is also helping the factory with

bring him business to now he's visited the gigafactory for the 1st time he's hopeful he can secure a contract with the american economy are. returning now to our stop top story about falling fair trade sales in germany i'm now joined by. the c.e.o. of fair trade international welcome to the program if you could tell us a sales in germany are fully but how does the picture look for fair trade products internationally. the government in crises has been extremely challenging times we have one around the world will shed it producers and consumers alike sales in germany as you correctly say are falling to see a do to the prices however we're quite optimistic that we'll rebound later this year and this optimism i must say is shared by many of my colleagues in fact in markets across the globe now to what extent has the pandemic affected fair trade

producers in africa for example. in various ways they've been loss of jobs because of restrictions that have affected businesses increased transportation increased cost of food not enough financial resources to address health and safety needs. so there have been dramatically affected by the pandemic but this is why as fairtrade we rolled out of it 19 relief and resilience fund to help the producers in need during this time if i can give an example is in morocco there's a co-operative immigrants who are russians were really impacted and therefore they had to look at ways to diversify their income source so what they did with affected fund was to build reservoirs and wells and they were able to diversify to produce olive oil so that is what they're working out so that crisis has shown how incredibly resilient and resourceful producers are around the world can you tell us

for example what has happened to the supply chain that connected producers and consumers a fair trade products. supply chains initially didn't a fast way of. really affected by the crisis it has since improved in some. exports were frozen. and so you found that produces i'll give example flowers flower farmers one left with flowers that they couldn't get out of the country so they had to dump them they had to send their workers when leave all let them go reduce the workforce so that lockdown really affected a lot of them and later on increased couple prices so supply chains have been affected by this crisis inst but that is exactly why we as fair trade mobilize our key partners including the german government to deliver 17500000 euros in called

with relief and resilience funding to our 500000 farmers and casual workers in 60 countries across the globe yeah go and you know oh she's a c.e.o. of fair trade international thank you very much for your time today. and finally got a little change left over and some wall space to fill you can head over to kristi's online of course and check out their spring sale to be held next week it's focused on 20th century art featuring works from picasso and brought go all the way to banksy to highlight a magnificent of magnificent head painting by john. it's expected to fetch more than $50000000.00. and a reminder of the top story this hour for the 1st time in 20 years sales of fair trade products in germany have dipped out as the pandemic left big buyers like restaurants and university cafeterias shuttered. the e.u.

has put on ice efforts to win approval for a comprehensive investment deal with china in response to recent chinese sanctions targeting members of the e.u. parliament which the european commission said were unacceptable and regrettable. thank you so much for watching. the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update. on w. n during the conflict so the government of sri lanka has been strongly criticized of the un human rights council for the. situation in the country and

greece marginalise ation the minority my guest this week is just enough secretary just sri lanka's foreign ministry physically jones of the mood to take the criticism seriously i'm still something about the conflicts of the. 60 minutes. it's already a reality for seasonal flu a couple of sprays up your nose and you get strong protection against a potentially deadly virus because it works for corona virus they would put the vaccine right where the virus reproduces in the responder tree system a nasal spray vaccine against 19 could feed the answer for country struggling to contain the pandemic.