Trump threatens to pull US from WTO 'if we have to'
Monaca (US), Aug 14: President Donald Trump has threatened to pull the United States out of the World Trade Organization if conditions are not improved.
"We will leave if we have to," Trump told a cheering audience of workers at a Shell chemical plant in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.
"We know that they have been screwing us for years and it's not going to happen again," he said.
Trump has made the WTO the target of many previous attacks, and threatened before to withdraw, claiming unfair treatment toward the US and saying Washington does not have to abide by WTO rulings.
He is especially critical about the terms granted to China when it joined the organization, given US complaints about Chinese theft of American technology.
But the United States in fact has a successful track record of winning disputes mediated by the global trading body. While calling for reforms to the institution's rules, the Trump administration also has effectively paralysed its work.
By blocking naming of new members to the appellate panel part of the Dispute Settlement Body that arbitrates disputes, the system will grind to a halt by the end of the year.
Chad Bown, a trade expert with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the moves weakening the WTO have done "lasting damage," not all of which can be reversed.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
50 passengers from Karnataka stranded in conflict region arrived in New Delhi: CM office
Bengaluru (PTI): Fifty passengers from the state who were stranded in the Gulf region amid the ongoing West Asia conflict arrived in New Delhi early Friday morning after departing from Fujairah in the UAE, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's office said.
The protocol team (Karnataka govt) were at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi with breakfast, it said.
They were transported on a KSRP (Karnataka State Reserve Police) bus and two cars to domestic terminals for their onward travel to Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Hubballi, the CM office said in a statement.
Many were disgruntled and complained to the team that MEA did nothing, and it was only a local organisation that helped them with their tickets, etc., the statement claimed.
"Incidentally, we are the only state so far that is providing this assistance at the Delhi airport," it added.
