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Exclusive: US pauses financial contributions to WTO, trade sources say

By Emma Farge
March 28, 2025 9:58 AM EDT Updated 2 months ago


GENEVA, March 28 (Reuters) - The United States has paused contributions to the World Trade Organization, three trade sources told Reuters, as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration ramps up efforts to cut government spending. The Trump administration is retreating from global institutions it sees as at odds with his "America First" economic policies. It plans to quit some, such as the World Health Organization, and has cut contributions to others as part of a broad review of federal spending.

The WTO has already been hobbled by a U.S. move in 2019 during Trump's first term to block new judge appointments to its top appeals court, which left its key dispute settlement system only partially functional. Washington had accused the WTO Appellate Body of judicial overreach in trade disputes.

The Geneva-based trade watchdog had an annual budget of 205 million Swiss francs ($232.06 million) in 2024. The United States was due to contribute about 11% of that based on a fees system that is proportionate to its share of global trade, according to public WTO documents.

A U.S. delegate told a March 4 WTO budget meeting that its payments to the 2024 and 2025 budgets were on hold pending a review of contributions to international organisations and that it would inform the WTO of the outcome at an unspecified date, two trade sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said. A third trade source confirmed their account and said the WTO was coming up with a "Plan B" in case of a prolonged funding pause, without elaborating.

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