The US withdrawal from the World Trade Organization (WTO) could lead to the extinction of the regulating body, the Kremlin said following US President Donald Trump’s warning that Washington may leave the organization.
“The existence of […] the backbone global economic organization after the world's largest economy leaves it will be a big question, it’s obvious,” the Russian president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, as cited by Interfax. However, according to him, whatever the decision, it is a “US internal affair.” At the same time, the Kremlin official emphasized that Russia remains a devoted member of the WTO “with all the ensuing consequences.”
Also on rt.com Trump blasts China & India for ‘taking advantage’ of WTO’s developing nations tagAddressing a gathering in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Trump said he was considering his country's exit from the WTO if conditions within the organization are not improved.
“We will leave [the WTO] if we have to. We know that they have been screwing us for years and it's not going to happen again,” Trump told an audience of workers at a Shell chemical plant in Pennsylvania.
He called the current mechanism of the organization’s work ineffective and unfair, blasting it for helping some countries profit at the expense of the United States. He was especially critical about the terms granted to states like China and India, considered developing economies while Trump believes they are way too advanced for this status.
Also on rt.com World Trade Organization allows China to sanction US over Obama-era tariffsWTO grants developing countries the right to operate under different rules than advanced economies in certain areas, for instance regarding tariff cuts, transition periods and dispute settlements.
Despite his criticism of the organization, Trump himself stated more than once that after he became president the United States began to win the majority of trade disputes and court cases under the WTO, while before his presidency things were different.
Russia has been a member of the WTO since 2012.
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Source : RT Business News
Russia says WTO would likely cease to exist if United States quits trade body
Russia says WTO would likely cease to exist if United States quits trade body
