Washington: “If the World Trade Organisation doesn’t give up its anti-US stance, the US will withdraw from it,” threatened US President Donald Trump. Russia levied additional tariffs on US products and President Trump reprimanded the WTO over the action saying that it wasn’t taking any action against the decision. Russia however, rebuffed Trump’s allegations and warned him instead, “If you don’t abide by the international laws, the US would have to bear its cost”.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) was established with an objective to resolve violations of trade rules and trade disputes. Nevertheless, President Trump has alleged that the organisation was ruling its decisions against the US in most cases. Though he also admitted to the fact that a few of the rulings were made in its favour. However, the US was making losses due to major decisions of the WTO, Trump claimed in an interview with a US news channel.
Since the last few years, Russia has imposed sanctions and levied additional tariffs on US products. Despite US’ demands, President Putin has refused to withdraw the sanctions and tariffs and declared that they would continue till the end of this year. The WTO was not taking a firm stand on the Russian arrogance, criticised the US president.
President Trump alleged that the Russian sanctions and tariffs over US products violated the international trade rules. “If they don’t shape up, we will withdraw from the WTO,” threatened Trump. He had condemned WTO’s anti-US stance previously as well. “The WTO is working for the benefit of other nations, except for the US”, he lashed out. Whereas, one senior US official blamed the organisation saying, the WTO was interfering with the US sovereignty.
Russia replied to US President’s warning with criticism from its Finance Minister saying that “The US who so threatens to step out of the WTO, is itself not abiding by the international rules. If the US made the mistake of withdrawing from the WTO or violating the international rules, it would have to face severe consequences,” warned the Russian minister.
Meanwhile, news reports of the US sanctions over Russia which were imposed last week, affecting the Russian economy have surfaced. As a countermeasure, Russia has stopped all transactions in the US dollar and increased its investment in gold.
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