The Trump administration has paid more than $25mn in overdue membership fees to the World Trade Organization despite its frequent attacks on the global trade body, according to emails seen by the Financial Times.
The decision came eight months after the administration announced it was withholding its annual contributions pending a review of US payments to a host of multilateral organisations, including the WTO and the OECD.
Based on its share of global trade, the US was due to contribute 11 per cent of the WTO’s annual budget of 205mn Swiss francs ($257mn) in 2024. This was reported to be SFr23.2mn in the WTO’s annual report last December — then equivalent to $25.7mn.