Trump says may pull out of WTO EU’s Juncker vows to boost auto tariffs if Trump reneges on pact

‘TREATED BADLY’ US president warns trade body to ‘shape up’, airs grievances over alleged biases WASHINGTON:

President Donald Trump said he would pull out of the World Trade Organization if it doesn’t treat the US better, targeting a cornerstone of the international trading system.

“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump said on Thursday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. Trump said the agreement establishing the body “was the single worst trade deal ever made.”

A US withdrawal from the WTO potentially would be far more significant for the global economy than even Trump’s growing trade war with China, undermining the post-World War 2 system that the US helped build.

Trump said last month that the US is at a big disadvantage from being treated “very badly” by the WTO for many years and that the Geneva-based body needs to “change their ways.”

US trade representative Robert Lighthizer has said allowing China into the WTO in 2001 was a mistake. He has long called for the US to take a more aggressive approach to the WTO, arguing that it was incapable of dealing with a non-market economy such as China.

Lighthizer has accused the WTO dispute-settlement system of interfering with US sovereignty, particularly on antidumping cases. The US has been blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO’s appeals body, raising the possibility that it could cease to function in the coming years.

In the Oval Office interview, Trump said at the WTO “we rarely won a lawsuit except for last year”.

“In the last year, we’re starting to win a lot,” he added. “You know why? Because they know if we don’t, I’m out of there.”

For all of his complaints about the WTO, Trump’s administration has continued to file cases against other members. Earlier this week it launched a case against Russian duties on US products that it argues are illegal.

Countries that bring complaints to the WTO tend to prevail and defendants in trade disputes lose.

But WTO data also shows that the US does slightly better than the WTO average in both cases it brings and that are brought against it, said Simon Lester, a trade analyst at the Cato Institute, a Washington policy group that favours more open international trade.

The Trump administration has taken his complaints a step further by arguing that the WTO’s dispute settlement system is broken and in need of a major overhaul.

Since World War 2, successive U.S. presidents have led efforts to establish and strengthen global trading rules, arguing that they would bring stability to the world economy.

The WTO was created in 1994 as part of a US-led effort by major economies to create a forum for resolving trade disputes. US President Donald Trump

The European Union will respond in kind if US President Donald Trump reneges on his pledge not to impose car tariffs, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said as trade tensions between Europe and the United States rose again.

Juncker told German broadcaster ZDF on Friday that the EU would not let anyone determine its trade policies. If Washington decided to imposed tariffs on vehicles after all, he said, “then we will also do that”.

Trump rejected on Thursday an EU offer to eliminate tariffs on cars and said the EU’s trade policies are “almost as bad as China”, Bloomberg News reported.

Juncker said he had negotiated a “ceasefire agreement” on trade with Trump in July and while such deals were often jeopardised, they were generally respected.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet Juncker on Tuesday, German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said on Friday. She declined to comment on Trump’s latest remarks but said Germany fundamentally sought to lower trade barriers and promote free trade.

The trade issue is also likely to be addressed when Merkel meets French President Emmanuel Macron in France later on Friday.

The EU remains at odds with the United States over the US blocking of the appointment of judges at the World Trade Organization, over tariffs set for reasons of national security, and over Washington’s tough stance towards China.

Trump agreed in July to hold back on threatened 25% car tariffs while the United States and Europe talked about cutting other trade barriers.

But US officials have grown frustrated about the slow pace of progress.

BERLIN: