Trump Says Change to WTO 'Will Be Very Dramatic'

President Donald Trump, speaking at a press conference in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, said he'll be talking with World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo in Washington on “a whole new structure” for the WTO. “Roberto and I ... are going to do something that I think will be very dramatic,“ he said. Trump said Azevedo and others in his delegation will come to Washington “sometime next week or the week after, and we'll start working on it.”

Azevedo said, “If the WTO is to deliver and perform its role in today's global economy, it has to be updated, it has to be changed, it has to be reformed.”

“I don't think anybody in Geneva misses the point, they understand the system has not been functioning properly in many areas,” he said. “We are committed to effect those changes. I am going to be together with President Trump as soon as possible discussing what needs to change, and we are committed to doing that.”

He said he is talking to other countries' delegations to the WTO to “make sure they understand this is serious, this is a path they all have to be on together.”

On a panel the day before, Azevedo said binding dispute settlement is a “huge improvement” over the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. He said he is “100 percent sure“ the appellate body will survive. “I have no doubts about that whatsoever. But, it will change.... How quickly we can fix is the question.”

Trump complained again that the WTO has been unfair to the U.S., and he singled out the developing nation status of China and India. “China's viewed as a developing nation. India's viewed as a developing nation; as far as I'm concerned, we're a developing nation, too,” he said. “They shouldn't be. But if they are, we are.”