GENEVA: A US threat to block the WTO’s 2020 budget and effectively shutter its operations seems to have dissipated after a fresh proposal was tentatively agreed by trade diplomats in Geneva this week.

Washington reportedly threatened earlier this month to halt its financial contributions to the World Trade Organisation — a regular target of attack by President Donald Trump’s administration — and to block the consensus needed to adopt its annual budget.

WTO’s annual budget is financed by contributions from member states, with the amount calculated according to each country’s share of international trade.

The United States has thus traditionally been the largest contributor, coughing up around 22.7 million Swiss francs ($22.7m, 20.6m euros) in 2018, amounting to 11.6 per cent of the WTO budget that year.

But Washington has increasingly expressed frustration with the global trade body, and especially with the appeals wing of its dispute settlement system, which the US accuses of disfunction, overreach and violating its national sovereignty.

Washington has also recently criticised the compensation paid to appellate judges.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2019