Washington, Mar 29 (UNI) The reported suspension of funding to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the administration of US President Donald Trump could be viewed as a show of confidence in the United States’ ability to complete openly as well as its opposition to the WTO as a “globalist tool,” former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts told Sputnik.
WTO spokesperson Ismaila Dieng told RIA Novosti on Thursday that the US was overdue in paying its contribution to the WTO. According to Reuters, the Trump administration has suspended US financial contributions to the WTO amid an ongoing review of federal spending.
“The WTO is a globalist tool. Leaders who believe in national sovereignty should oppose it. Perhaps the way to look at it is that Trump has confidence in America’s ability to compete openly and wants to give up the practice of controlling outcomes,” Roberts, who served as assistant treasury secretary in the Reagan administration, said.
The relations between the Trump administration and the WTO have been complicated since the president’s first term, during which Washington was engaged in blocking appointments to the WTO’s Appellate Body, which has not been functioning since December 2019 and has not considered new appeals. One of the main sources of contention between Trump and the WTO was incompatible approaches to international trade, with the US president considering tariffs as a useful instrument for conducting economic and foreign policy and preferring direct negotiations as opposed to using the WTO framework.
Upon returning to the White House, Trump went on an aggressive tariff spree, imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada and raising tariffs on Chinese goods to 20%. Earlier in the month, the WTO announced that Canada had asked for dispute consultations with the United States on the issue.
