US President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if it doesn’t treat the US better.
“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump stated on Thursday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. Trump said the agreement establishing the body “was the single worst trade deal ever made.”
Trump further complained that the United States is treated unfairly in global trade and blamed the WTO for allowing that to happen. He has also warned he could take action against the global body.
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In the Oval Office interview, Trump said at the WTO “we rarely won a lawsuit except for last year.”
“In the last year, we’re starting to win a lot. You know why? Because they know if we don’t, I’m out of there.”
Earlier in July, Trump said that the US is at a big disadvantage from being treated “very badly” by the WTO for many years and that the Geneva-based body needs to “change their ways.”
The White House administration has taken Trump’s complaints a step further by arguing that the WTO’s dispute settlement system is broken and requires a major overhaul.
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Since the World War II, US presidents have put in efforts to establish and strengthen global trading rules, arguing that they would bring stability to the world economy.
The WTO was created in 1994 as part of a US-led effort by major economies to create a forum for resolving trade disputes.