Donald Trump. Photo Doc. NY Times

Trump Called Out Rich Countries for Claiming Developing Country Status

Zahara Sakinah Abdullah
Politics & Economic
Regulation
Jul 27, 2019
2879
Developing country status in the WTO is somehow become a privilege, as it allows governments of those countries to have longer timelines for implementing free trade commitments. This status also allows the countries to gain the ability to protect some domestic industry and maintain subsidies. However, there are many unfitted rich countries that claim this status to get such privilege. United States President Donald Trump is not quite amuse about this fact.

Trump has spoken out about the special "developing country" status of relatively rich countries like Singapore and China at the World Trade Organization.

In a memo released by the White House, Trump directed the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to not treating those countries as developing countries for the purpose of WTO membership if "substantial progress" toward reform had not been made within 90 days.

As he stated on Twitter, he accused the organization to be broken for allowing world’s richest countries to hold the status as the developing countries in order to avoid the rules of the organization and get special treatment. He also notes seven of the 10 wealthiest countries in the world who claim themselves as developing countries. Among them are Brunei, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Macao, Qatar, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Mexico, South Korea, and Turkey who are members if G20 countries and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also called themselves by this status.

To tackle this issue, Trump has order the USTR to cooperate with other countries to use all available means to secure changes at the WTO. The statement speaks the opinion that when these rich countries claim developing country status , they harm not only other developed economies but also economies that truly require special and differential treatment and this cannot continue to go unchecked.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/wto-developing-country-status-trump-singapore-china-11758276

Trump , Countries , WTO