US will withdraw from the WTO unless it shapes up, threatens Trump

President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if the body fails to change the way it treats America. "If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO," the BBC quoted Trump as saying in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday. The WTO was established to provide rules for global trade and resolve disputes between countries. However, Trump, who has been pushing protectionist policies, says the US is treated unfairly by the body, the BBC reported. His warning about a possible US pull-out from the organisation highlights the conflict between the president's trade policies and the open trade system that the WTO oversees. Washington has also blocked the election of new judges to the WTO's dispute settlement system, to potentially paralyse its ability to issue judgments. Trump has been sounding off about unfair trade since even before he became president. In 2017, Trump told Fox News: "The WTO was set up to benefit everybody but us We lose the lawsuits, almost all of the lawsuits in the WTO."