The move to limit support to the World Health Organisation in the midst of a global pandemic is unprecedented
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington D.C., U.S. on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. Picture: STEFANI REYNOLDS / BLOOMBERG
It’s unclear when any halt in payments would take effect or how much authority Trump has to suspend disbursements, which are authorised by Congress. The US has contributed $893m to the WHO’s operations during its current two-year funding cycle, according to the organisation. Administration officials signalled the suspension would be for 60 days.
The move to limit support to the WHO in the midst of a global pandemic is unprecedented. Yet as domestic criticism of the Trump administration’s response has increased and the US became the epicentre of the outbreak, many of the president’s supporters have pointed to the WHO for making early mistakes they say undermined the US and worsened the crisis.
The US contributes nearly a quarter of all member state dues for the WHO. That pool of funds — although a small proportion of the overall budget — are used as the organisation’s operating budget to run daily operations, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, an associate professor of international security at the University of Sydney who has written about the politics of pandemic preparedness.
Trump on Tuesday pointed to a WHO statement in late January opposing travel bans as a response to the coronavirus outbreak. The president instituted travel restrictions on China in late January, later extending it to the EU and UK Around the same time, he also praised China’s “efforts and transparency” in a tweet.
One person who reached out to Trump ahead of his announcement was the UN secretary-general. Guterres, through the US envoy to the UN, acknowledged WHO missteps in the pandemic, but argued that now is not the time to be pointing fingers.
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