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Trump threatens to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization

Friday, August 31st 2018 - 08:41 UTC
Full article 5 comments
“If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News “If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News
The WTO was established to provide rules for global trade and resolve disputes between countries The WTO was established to provide rules for global trade and resolve disputes between countries
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has also accused the WTO of interfering with US sovereignty US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has also accused the WTO of interfering with US sovereignty

President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization (WTO) if the body fails to change the way it treats America. “If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

The WTO was established to provide rules for global trade and resolve disputes between countries. But Mr Trump, who has been pushing protectionist policies, says the US is treated unfairly by the body.

His warning about a possible US pull-out from the organization highlights the conflict between the president's trade policies and the open trade system that the WTO oversees.

Meanwhile, Washington has recently been blocking the election of new judges to the WTO's dispute settlement system, which could potentially paralyze its ability to issue judgments.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has also accused the WTO of interfering with US sovereignty.

The US president has been sounding off about unfair trade since even before he became president. Last year, Mr Trump told Fox News: “The WTO was set up to benefit everybody but us… We lose the lawsuits, almost all of the lawsuits in the WTO.”

The US has been embroiled in a tit-for-tat trade battle on several fronts in recent months. The one creating the most interest is the one with China, as the world's two largest economies wrangle for global influence.

Mr Trump has introduced tariffs on a number of goods imported into the US. A third round of tariffs on US$ 200bn of Chinese goods could come as soon as a public-comment period concludes next week, according to a Bloomberg report citing various sources.

Asked to confirm this during the Bloomberg interview, President Trump said that it was “not totally wrong”.

China has responded to US tariffs by imposing retaliatory taxes on the same value of US products and has filed complaints against the tariffs at the WTO.

China's commerce ministry has said it “clearly suspects” the US of violating WTO rules.

An initial complaint at the WTO was filed by China in July after Mr Trump imposed his first round of tariffs.

The WTO, which was set up in 1994, is at the heart of the system of rules for international trade. It is the forum for sorting disputes between countries about breaches of global trade rules and it is the forum for negotiating new trade liberalization.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules
  • Terence Hill

    chronic i.e pathological
    “Depart, I Say, And Let Us Have Done With You. In The Name Of God, Go!” Oliver Cromwell

    Aug 31st, 2018 - 12:44 pm 0
  • Terence Hill

    chronic i.e pathological
    “poor commies losers.” You are a perfect example of the following type, Duh.
    “The study, by academics at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, used information from two UK studies from 1958 and 1970 , where several thousand children were assessed for intelligence at age 10 and 11, and then asked political questions aged 33.
    The 1958 National Child Development involved 4,267 men and 4,537 women born in 1958.”
    www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2095549/Right-wingers-intelligent-left-wingers-says-controversial-study--conservative-politics-lead-people-racist.html A
    ”The study was conducted using two large-scale, nationally representative U.K. data sets (N = 15,874), and a secondary analysis of a U.S. data set.“
    www.ibtimes.com/people-low-iq-tend-be-socially-conservative-new-study-401470
    ”So are liberals smarter? Kanazawa quotes from two surveys that support the hypothesis that liberals are more intelligent. One is the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which is often called Add Health. The other is the General Social Survey (GSS). The Add Health study shows that the mean IQ of adolescents who identify themselves as “very liberal” is 106, compared with a mean IQ of 95 for those calling themselves “very conservative.” The Add Health study is huge — more than 20,000 kids — and this difference is highly statistically significant.”
    http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1968042,00.html

    Aug 31st, 2018 - 07:54 pm 0
  • :o))

    REF: “Mr. Trump has introduced tariffs on a number of goods imported into the US. The third round of tariffs on US$ 200bn of Chinese goods”:

    An introduction of the tariffs is not a ban on goods. If the consumers are willing to pay the higher prices; what's wrong?

    Sep 05th, 2018 - 03:39 pm 0
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