Donald Trump tells aides he wants to withdraw US from WTO, reports say

President Trump reportedly tells aides 'We always get f*****' by the World Trade Organisation

President Trump's comments over leaving the WTO have his advisers concerned (REUTERS)

News from inside the White House suggests that Donald Trump’s staff are in turmoil over his repeated comments that he wants to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

President Donald Trump has been critical of the WTO, the global international organisation dedicated to the management of international trade, since his time on the campaign trail.

According to a report by Axios, a source familiar with White House talks said: “He’s [threatened to withdraw] 100 times. It would totally [screw] us as a country.”

The source added that Mr Trump has frequently told advisers, “We always get f***** by them [the WTO]. I don’t know why we’re in it. The WTO is designed by the rest of the world to screw the United States.”

Mr Trump has been critical of the WTO since the campaign trail, telling NBC the WTO is a “disaster”. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pushed back against the report that Mr Trump wished to leave the WTO, saying it was ”an exaggeration”. Mr Mnuchin said the president “has concerns about the WTO. He thinks there’s aspects that aren’t fair.”

WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell said: “All we can say on this is at no time has any US official contacted the WTO secretariat to indicate Washington intends to leave the WTO.”

The US helped create the WTO in 1995 to establish a forum for international trade negotiation, the resolution of trade disputes, and the distribution of support for developing nations. There are 164 member economies, representing 98 per cent of global GDP.

Experts argue that the consequences of a US withdrawal would be catastrophic for global market sustainability. The removal would mean the sudden deprivation of trillions of dollars in trade. Axios predicted the administration will likely “push the envelope” on trade policies, with the expectation that it will be challenged by the WTO.

But as Axios speculated: “If Trump continues to feel as if he’s being unfairly stymied by the international body, you’d be a food to confidently declare that he won’t follow through on his desires at some point.”