US president Donald Trump has threatened to pull out of the World Trade Organization if “they don’t shape up”
In an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday he said: “If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO”
Trump has repeatedly told top White House officials he wants to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization,
RT reports: Last month, the US president told reporters that the WTO has treated the US “very badly” for many years, and that the Geneva-based body will need to “change their ways.”
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has called allowing China into the WTO a mistake and accused the trade body’s dispute settlement system of interfering with US sovereignty. The Trump administration has recently blocked the appointment of judges to the WTO’s appeals body.
On Wednesday, Washington filed a complaint with the WTO against Russia’s retaliatory tariffs, which were a response to Trump’s steel and aluminum duties imposed earlier this year.
Niamh Harris