Nearly three weeks after a factory collapse killed more than 1,100 people, the world’s biggest clothing companies are committing to safety standards that could play a key role in policing the country’s main industry. Among the new signers on Tuesday were Italy's Benetton Group SpA, Spain's Mango MNG Holding SL and El Corte Ingles, France's Carrefour SA, and Marks & Spencer in the U.K. PVH Corp., the parent of Calvin Klein, Hennes & Mauritz AB and Inditex, parent of the Zara fast-fashion chain, had announced on Monday they were signing the accord. The plan requires companies to have rigorous independent inspections and to help pay for fire safety upgrades, like adding fire escapes, which many factories still lack. Enlarge Image Close Xinhua/Zuma Press Army personnel Tuesday at the site of collapsed Rana Plaza building on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He said after that order “no other product came out” of that factory “for us or for Wal-Mart.” 
 
 After a fire last November at another Bangladesh garment factory that killed 112 workers, numerous documents showed that six suppliers had clothes made there for Wal-Mart in previous months. Gap said it supported much of the plan, but it proposed changes that would greatly limit any legal liability for a company that violated the plan. Wal-Mart also expressed concerns about the joint Bangladesh safety plan, saying it “introduces requirements, including governance and dispute resolution mechanisms, on supply chain matters that are appropriately left to retailers, suppliers and government, and are unnecessary to achieve fire and safety goals.” 
 
 Wal-Mart added that its plan either meets or “exceeds” the group safety plan, and would get quicker results. The retailer won't pay for renovations but will "expect the cost of safety improvements to be reflected in the cost of goods we buy," said Rajan Kamalanathan, Wal-Mart's head of ethical sourcing, in an interview.
– Major European retailers are lining up to sign a Bangladesh safety plan aimed at preventing disasters like Rana Plaza, but American companies, including the Gap and Walmart, are backing away. Walmart—which blames a "rogue employee" for an order for its clothes found in the rubble of the building collapse—says it has its own safety plan for the 279 factories it uses in Bangladesh, and it will quickly deliver results as good as or better than the European plan, the New York Times reports. Walmart plans to audit factories for safety and remove them from its suppliers list if hazards are found. But while the European plan is legally binding, Walmart's is voluntary, and experts say such plans have a poor record for delivering results. "Without the legally binding contract that the European retailers have signed, it's just putting lipstick on a pig," a sociology professor who has been a vocal critic of sweatshops tells the Wall Street Journal. The Gap, meanwhile, says it won't sign the European plan unless language is removed that it fears could make it liable in US courts for safety failures at Bangladesh factories. The only American firm to have signed the plan so far is PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.