Trump signs executive order withdrawing US from World Health Organisation

New Delhi: Soon after taking oath, US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order officially withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

The video of signing the order, provided by The White House, shows Trump at his desk in the Oval Office, methodically signing the document that initiates the formal withdrawal process from the WHO.

Trump, during his first term in 2020, began the withdrawal process from the WHO, which was later reversed by his successor, President Joe Biden, in 2021. 

However, upon his re-election, Trump signed the order, fulfilling a campaign promise rooted in his critique of the organisation's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its alleged ties to China. 

Trump has repeatedly criticised the WHO for not holding China accountable for the early spread of the virus, labeling it a "puppet of Beijing." 

The executive order was anticipated by health law experts who had been privy to the discussions within Trump's transition team. 

According to Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, "The plan was to withdraw probably on Day One or very early in his administration." 

The US was the largest single donor to the WHO, contributing 16% of its funding in recent years. 

A sudden withdrawal would leave a significant vacuum in global health financing and leadership, especially critical in managing future pandemics.

And without US influence, global disease surveillance, emergency response systems, and the WHO's capacity to address public health crises could be undermined. 

Experts like Ashish Jha, Biden's former Covid response coordinator, have warned that disengagement from these institutions hampers global health surveillance and preparedness for future outbreaks. 

Trump's administration has further signaled its stance by nominating critics of the WHO to key health positions. Among them is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his skepticism towards vaccines, who has been nominated for the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Earlier on Monday, the US president signed an executive order to withdraw from the ambitious Paris Agreement on Climate Change, a fulfilment of a campaign promise.

“I am immediately withdrawing from the unfair one-sided Paris climate accord,” Trump said before signing the executive order at an inauguration event at Washington’s Capital One arena here.

Notably Trump had withdrawn from the Paris Agreement immediately after his first inauguration in January 2017. Joe Biden reversed that decision later.

The Paris Agreement places unfair economic burdens on American workers, businesses, and taxpayers. It hampers the economic and national security of the United States while allowing the world’s leading polluters such as China to continue to pollute, according to the Trump team.

Describing it as a one-sided agreement, Trump said the United States will not sabotage its own industries while China pollutes with impunity.

“China, I mean, look, they use a lot of dirty energy, but they produce a lot of energy and when that stuff goes up in the air, you know, it doesn't stay there,” he said.

“It's not like you got a wall. We love walls, don't we? Not like you have a wall around and it floats into the United States of America after three and a half to five and a half days. It floats across the oceans and it comes right over your neighbourhood and it falls into your neighbourhood. So, they all say we have to fight for cleaner air, but the other dirty air is dropping all over us, so what the hell are they talking about,” Trump said.

“Unless everybody does it, it just doesn't work. We had the cleanest air and the cleanest water that this country has ever had under the Trump administration, and we didn't do anything to stop jobs and stop production,” he added.

The executive order says that the United States Ambassador to the United Nations shall immediately submit formal written notification of its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The US will consider its withdrawal from the Agreement and any attendant obligations to be effective immediately upon this provision of notification.

“It is the policy of my Administration to put the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy. These agreements must not unduly or unfairly burden the United States,” the executive order says.

Observing that the US must grow its economy and maintain jobs for its citizens, the executive order said over decades, with the help of sensible policies that do not encumber private-sector activity, the United States has simultaneously grown its economy, raised worker wages, increased energy production, reduced air and water pollution, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States’ successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries, it said.

“In recent years, the United States has purported to join international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect our country’s values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives. “Moreover, these agreements steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people,” said the executive order.