Donald Trump Tuesday threatened to leave the World Trade Organization (WTO), which he criticizes sharply because it would give, according to him, preferential treatment to China to the detriment of the United States. "We will leave if necessary," said the US president in front of employees of a chemical plant of the company Shell, located in Pennsylvania.
Threats already brandished last summer
"We know they have been muddling us for years and that will not happen again," the billionaire Republican once again said. This is not the first time that the US President threatens to leave the international organization he considered, during his electoral campaign already, "obsolete". Last summer, Donald Trump said that the WTO has treated the United States "very badly" for years. He had assured that if the organization "did not reform", Washington could "withdraw".
At the end of last July, it also demanded reforms from the WTO to no longer give preferential treatment to developing countries. The Trump administration has long accused the WTO, and some of its members such as China, of abusing this status of a developing country, which allows, among other things, to delay the application of certain agreements or to protect certain sectors without exposing themselves to the anger of the members of the organization.