Shape up or I’ll pull out, Trump tells WTO

DONALD Trump threatened to tear up global trade rules yesterday unless the World Trade Organisation ‘shapes up’.

The US President, who is already embroiled in trade disputes with China and the European Union, launched an outspoken attack on the body, whose rules govern much of the world’s trade. His comments will alarm ministers, because dismantling the WTO would hit British exporters.

The body is seen as the possible basis for British trade with the EU in the event of a no- deal Brexit. But in an interview with Bloomberg, Mr Trump described the 1994 deal to establish the WTO as ‘ the single worst trade deal ever made’. He added: ‘If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO.’ The President, already at war with Brussels over steel tariffs, said he was unhappy with how often the US has lost lawsuits ruled on by the trade body in the past.