published: August 30 2018, 3:23 PM
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he would pull out of the World Trade Organization if it doesn’t treat the
U.S. better, continuing his criticism of a cornerstone of the international trading system.
“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg
News at the White House.
A U.S. withdrawal from the WTO would severely undermine the post-World War II multilateral trading system that the
U.S. helped build.
Trump said last month that the U.S. 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.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said allowing China into the WTO in 2001 was a mistake. He has long
called for the U.S. to take a more aggressive approach to the WTO, arguing that it was incapable of dealing such as
China.
Lighthizer has accused the WTO dispute-settlement system of interfering with U.S. sovereignty, particularly on anti-
dumping cases. The U.S. has been blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO’s appeals body, raising the
possibility that it could cease to function in the coming years.
©2018 Bloomberg L.P
Does he actually have the authority to do that? And does he have the Congressional support to accomplish it?
I know and understand what he has been doing in the "trade wars". But isolationism is still a possibly fatal effort.
isolationism? I believe he wants to end decades of abuse and judging by the roaring crowd at his rally in Indiana {one of the hardest places hit by bean tariffs and yet we rally} the people are with him.....imagine if the rest of the country joined instead of bitching
I think you need to be careful thinking the rest of the world is bitchin'. Clearly 10 people at a rally of 10000 could be against Trump and Yahoo for one, would talk to those 10 people and use that as their sample.
All you have to do is read some of their anti- Trump stories and then read the comments to know that what they are reporting isn't necessarily the truth of how people are feeling.
I don't think there is anyone that would disagree that China doesn't play fair. Just because Trump can be obnoxious, doesn't mean he isn't doing the right thing.