President Donald Trump reportedly wants to yank the US out of the World Trade Organization, a move that would upend the decades-old international trading order.
According to Jonathan Swan at news website Axios, Trump has repeatedly asked his advisers about pulling the US out fo the WTO and said that the rest of the world uses the organization to “screw the United States.”
Thr WTO is the international body that helps to settle trade disputes using a rules-based system, theoretically ending unfair trade practices and tamping down the threat of trade wars. The organization grew out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and was officially founded in 1995.
Removing the US from the WTO would undermine the legitimacy of the organization, remove the largest economy from it, and ignite the possibility that countries would no longer follow the system of trade rules created by the international community.
According to Axios, White House officials push back on Trump’s suggestions to leave the WTO and typically dismiss the suggestion despite Trump bringing up the idea multiple times.
To pull the US out of the WTO, Congress would have to approve the decision, so it is unlikely that Trump will resort to the move.
Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Business Insider that given Trump’s disregard for WTO rules in the implementation of the steel and aluminum tariffs, pulling the US out of the WTO is almost unnecessary for the president.
“While you never know with this president, I consider it unlikely that Trump will try to pull the US out of the WTO,” Alden said. “He has already shown that he can pursue the policies he wants without regard to WTO rules. The WTO has not been a constraint on this administration.”
But, Alden said, if Trump did pull the plug it would be a serious negative for the global economy.
“Obviously if he did try to pull out that would create greater trade uncertainty, which is not good for the economy,” he said. “But there is plenty of uncertainty as it is already.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied the report, saying that it was “an exaggeration” to say that Trump wants to pull the US out of the WTO. He called the Axios report “fake news.” White House legislative director Marc Short said that Trump was frustrated with the WTO, but he was not aware of any plan to get the US out of the organization.
Swan defended the report on Twitter following Mnuchin’s denial.
“Aka — for the Twitter users going berserk — Mnuchin LIED,” Swan tweeted. “Trump has explicitly told his adviser he wants to withdraw from the WTO many times. Mnuchin has been in the room when he has said this. Every sentence in our story is accurate, including the way we framed the plausibility.”
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