Trump Signs Executive Order To Withdraw US From WHO

On his first day back in the White House, US President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders, including one to begin the process of withdrawing the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The order was issued about eight hours after Trump took the oath of office. 

"Oooh, that's a big one," the new president said as he approved the document upon arriving back at the White House.

The U.S. has been a member of the WHO since 1948, the year the organisation was launched. If the withdrawal proceeds, it will make the U.S. the only major power outside the 194-country body. 

According to the order, the U.S. is leaving due to the WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises,” along with its failure to adopt reforms and its “inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.”

The move means the U.S. will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months and will no longer contribute financially to its activities. This decision would, among other things, result in a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars for the WHO’s core budget, which would significantly impact its ability to respond to global health emergencies.

The U.S. is and has historically been the largest funder of the global health agency. It contributes around 18 per cent of WHO's overall funding. Its most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion. The next-largest donors to the WHO are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, followed by the European Commission and the World Bank. The next-largest national donor is Germany, which contributes around 3 per cent of the WHO's funding.

Health experts warn that leaving the WHO will isolate the U.S. and have consequences for global pandemic response and diplomatic relations. The U.S. will lose access to networks such as the one that determines the composition of the flu vaccine annually. 

The World Health Organisation, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, was founded in 1948 with help from the United States. Its mission is to “confront the biggest health challenges of our time and measurably advance the well-being of the world’s people.”  The US exit could also hinder the WHO’s ability to respond swiftly and efficiently to infectious disease outbreaks and other emergencies around the world.

The move was not unexpected. This is not Trump’s first attempt to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO. In 2020, he criticised the agency’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and initiated steps to withdraw. But after he lost the 2020 election, the threat did not materialise. On his first day in office, Jan. 20, 2021, former President Joe Biden put a stop to it. This time, Trump will still be in office when the withdrawal takes effect.

Trump’s order stated that the “WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.” It cited China, which has a population many times larger than the United States, yet contributes approximately 90 percent less to the WHO. The membership fees of countries to the WHO is mainly based on the gross domestic product (GDP).

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. The agreement aims to improve pandemic preparedness through policies on surveillance, data sharing, and vaccine manufacturing and supply chains.