Trump administration set to abandon fundamental WTO rules after devising bill called Fart Act

'The US FART Act stinks', says longstanding Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci

Donald Trump’s administration has drafted a bill that proposes abandoning fundamental principles of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, dubbed the Fart Act, would give the president licence to raise tariffs without congressional consent and sidestep international rules.

The legislation, reportedly ordered by Mr Trump himself, would mark an extraordinary shift in trade policy, allowing the US to raise tariffs above ceilings agreed by WTO countries and set different rates for individual nations outside of free trade agreements.

“It would be the equivalent of walking away from the WTO and our commitments there without us actually notifying our withdrawal,” a source familiar with the bill told news website Axios, which obtained a leaked copy of the proposals.

The source described the bill as “insane” and said most officials involved in its drafting think it is unrealistic or unworkable.

“The good news is Congress would never give this authority to the president,” they added. “It’s not implementable at the border... and it would completely remove us from the set of global trade rules.”

The leaked proposals heightened fears that Mr Trump could trigger a global trade war, while the Fart Act’s name prompted widespread derision.

“WTO has its flaws, but the ‘United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act,’ aka the US Fart Act, stinks. American consumers pay for tariffs,” tweeted Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived White House director of communications.

Don Moynihan, a professor of government at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggested Mr Trump may struggle to get people to take the bill seriously. He wrote: “The world is laughing at us,’ says Trump, before proposing the Fart Act.”

Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of Berkeley and former US labour secretary, said: “Trump wants to abandon the rules of the World Trade Organisation – giving him authority to raise tariffs without congressional consent, isolating America, and playing into Putin’s and Xi’s vision of ultra-nativist nationalism.”

Political scientist Jasmin Mujanović warned the draft bill showed “Trump is determined to implode the global economy”.

Mr Trump has been critical of the WTO since his presidential campaign, describing it as a “disaster”, and he is reported to have told White House staffers he wants to withdraw from the organisation.

It was reported last week that the president frequently told advisers: “We always get f****d by them. I don’t know why we’re in it. The WTO is designed by the rest of the world to screw the United States.”

US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin last week denied that Mr Trump wanted to take the US out of the WTO.

“This is an exaggeration,” Mr Mnuchin said. “The president has been clear, with us and with others, he has concerns about the WTO, he thinks there’s aspects of it that are not fair, he thinks that China and others have used it to their own advantage, but we are focused on free trade. That’s what we’re focused on – breaking down barriers.”

White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters said the administration was not preparing to roll out the Fart Act and the drafting of the legislation did not mean the US was planning to leave the WTO.

She said: “It is no secret that POTUS has had frustrations with the unfair imbalance of tariffs that put the US at a disadvantage. He has asked his team to develop ideas to remedy this situation and create incentives for countries to lower their tariffs. The current system gives the US no leverage and other countries no incentive.”

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 warn the consequences of a US withdrawal would be catastrophic for global market sustainability and would mean the sudden deprivation of trillions of dollars in trade.