--- title: Trump Threatens to Withdraw U.S. From WTO description: President Donald Trump said he would pull out of the World Trade Organization if it doesn’t treat the U.S. better. canonical: https://time.com/5383420/trump-world-trade-organization/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-30T20:51:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:18:26.850Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Threatens to Withdraw U.S. From the World Trade Organization 'If They Don't Shape Up' og:description: “If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO" og:url: https://time.com/5383420/trump-world-trade-organization/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e9cd9262fceafff/6989392822fb852727e26922/trump-wto-threat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: president-trump-wto og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Threatens to Withdraw U.S. From the World Trade Organization 'If They Don't Shape Up' twitter:description: “If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e9cd9262fceafff/6989392822fb852727e26922/trump-wto-threat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Threatens to Withdraw U.S. From the World Trade Organization 'If They Don't Shape Up' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=48be1918-2da1-4e27-ae0e-285790d2bea8&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [John Micklethwait, Margaret Talev and Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## John Micklethwait, Margaret Talev and Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg Contributor Aug 30, 2018 8:51 PM UTC  President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks to members of the news media in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Aug. 28, 2018. President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks to members of the news media in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Aug. 28, 2018. MICHAEL REYNOLDS—EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock by [John Micklethwait, Margaret Talev and Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## John Micklethwait, Margaret Talev and Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg Contributor Aug 30, 2018 8:51 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said he would pull out of the World Trade Organization if it doesn’t treat the U.S. better, continuing his criticism of a cornerstone of the international trading system. “If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg News at the White House. A U.S. withdrawal from the WTO would severely undermine the post-World War II multilateral trading system that the U.S. helped build. Trump said last month that the U.S. is at a big disadvantage from being treated “very badly” by the WTO for many years and that the Geneva-based body needs to “change their ways.” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said allowing China into the WTO in 2001 was a mistake. He has long called for the U.S. to take a more aggressive approach to the WTO, arguing that it was incapable of dealing with a non-market economy such as China. Lighthizer has accused the WTO dispute-settlement system of interfering with U.S. sovereignty, particularly on anti-dumping cases. The U.S. has been blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO’s appeals body, raising the possibility that it could cease to function in the coming years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5383420/trump-world-trade-organization/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5383420/trump-world-trade-organization/"},"headline":"President Trump Threatens to Withdraw U.S. From the World Trade Organization 'If They Don't Shape Up'","datePublished":"2018-08-30T20:51:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:18:26.850Z","description":"“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO\"","url":"https://time.com/5383420/trump-world-trade-organization/","keywords":["White House","trade","Bloomberg","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e9cd9262fceafff/6989392822fb852727e26922/trump-wto-threat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Micklethwait, Margaret Talev and Jennifer Jacobs / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e9cd9262fceafff/6989392822fb852727e26922/trump-wto-threat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"president-trump-wto","caption":"Trump in the Oval Office","creditText":"MICHAEL REYNOLDS—EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5383420/trump-world-trade-organization/","name":"President Trump Threatens to Withdraw U.S. From the World Trade Organization 'If They Don't Shape Up'"}}]}] ```