Trump Threatens to Upend Global Trade

“President Trump has repeatedly told top White House officials he wants to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization, a move that would throw global trade into wild disarray,” people involved in the talks tell Axios.

“A U.S. withdrawal from the WTO would send global markets into a spiral and cast trillions of dollars of trade into doubt. It would also blow up an institution that for 70-plus years has been a pillar of global economic and political stability.”

“The consequences of a U.S. withdrawal are so profound that, like Trump’s senior advisers, the trade community hasn’t seriously entertained the possibility that Trump would try to withdraw.”