U.S President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization (WHO)
The move, which was widely anticipated, will see the U.S. leave the global health body within a year from the official notification to the United Nations and the WHO.
Trump signed an executive order Monday night withdrawing the country from the World Health Organisation.
Trump also directed the two officials to “recall and reassign” U.S. government personnel or contractors working with the WHO and find “credible and transparent” U.S. and international partners to replace the “necessary activities previously undertaken by the WHO.”
Some have called one of the US president’s first executive orders “a grave error” and “absolutely bad news”.
The executive order also demands the secretary of State to cease negotiations on the pandemic agreement that WHO member countries have been negotiating for years, with a deadline to conclude set for May.
Trump’s order noted that the “WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.”
The U.S. provides about a quarter of that budget as a mandatory membership fee but often gives more — with the figure ranging from $163 million to $816 million in recent years, according to health policy think tank KFF.
With this withdrawal plan, American drugmakers could lose the WHO’s help in selling their products worldwide since the WHO system endorsing drugs, vaccines and medical devices for global use that many developing countries rely on could be impaired by the loss of U.S. funding.
The WHO has asked the US to reconsider withdrawing. But the organisation may need to look at further reforms for any possibility of future negotiations. This is the best path toward a solution.
