No ‘indication’ US will quit body under Trump: WTO chief

The head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Thursday said he had no indication the US would move to leave the international trade body under Donald Trump’s administration. “I haven’t had any indication from anybody that that could be the case,” said WTO chief Roberto Azevedo.

During his campaign, which repeatedly attacked global trade deals, President-elect Trump called the WTO a “disaster” and said the US could quit the Geneva-based body. Azevedo stressed it was premature to speculate on what Trump may do in office.

“I just don’t know what the trade policies are,” Azevedo said of the incoming administration. “I haven’t talked to him,” he added, when asked if he had spoken to Trump since the November 8 US vote. “What we have to do is be ready for a conversation” with Trump’s economic team, the Brazilian national added. He conceded that swathes of people worldwide had come to see global trade as a job-killer even though such perceptions were not supported by evidence.