China criticized the United States on Friday for withdrawing from the World Organization, saying countries should not place domestic politics ahead of international law.
The country’s representative, attending a meeting of the WHO’s executive board, made the comments during discussions about the withdrawal of the U.S. and Argentina from the global health agency.
Though the Trump administration has made clear the U.S. withdrawal is complete, the WHO has little precedent for the mechanics of such an exit. The executive board agreed to refer the issue to the World Health Assembly, the annual meeting of the WHO’s member states held every year in May. On the issue of Argentina, the executive board adopted a draft resolution to recommend the WHA acknowledge the country’s withdrawal.
“Major countries in particular should lead by example,” the Chinese representative said during the portion of the weeklong meeting that dealt with the U.S. withdrawal. China is not currently a member of the WHO executive board, but other countries are allowed to attend its meetings and take part in its deliberations.
“They should not treat the WHO as something to be used as it fits and abandoned when it [does] not, nor should they bypass the WHO and set up alternative mechanisms,” the Chinese official said. Officials speaking at the meeting were identified solely by the country which they were representing.
STAT has asked the State Department for comment.
The United States has suggested bilateral agreements and “results-driven partnerships” can protect the country from infectious diseases threats, a major role played by the WHO.
The Chinese representative suggested the issue of withdrawal from the WHO was “complex and sensitive” and that countries should not be allowed to enter or exit at will. “At present, there are certain gaps and ambiguity in the WHO’s rule regarding membership changes,” he said. “Based on fairness and transparency, necessary adjustments and improvements should be made to better respond to the new circumstances and requirements on global health governance.”
President Trump attempted to pull the United States out of the WHO during his first administration, but the Biden administration reversed the decision when it took office in 2021. Trump renewed the effort on the day of his second inauguration, giving a year’s notice as required by the 1948 congressional joint resolution that allowed the U.S. to join the WHO.
The joint resolution also stipulated that the U.S. would need to pay outstanding bills before leaving the global health agency — something the Trump administration has insisted it will not do. The country has left the organization without paying at least $278 million in assessed contributions or dues for 2024 and 2025, plus several hundreds of millions more in voluntary contributions the country had promised the WHO for projects of particular interest to the United States.
At the executive board meeting Friday, a representative from North Korea — which is currently a member of the board — raised the issue of the unpaid U.S. bills.
“It is our view that the obligation of discharging arrears of the assessed contributions due to the WHO is applicable to all withdrawing countries,” the North Korean official said.
Discussion of the U.S. withdrawal from WHO was surprisingly short — less than five minutes — with comments made by only China, North Korea, and Israel. The latter, also a member of the executive board at present, suggested further discussion of the U.S. membership question was a waste of the body’s time.
“Any attempt to compel states against their national decisions is an infringement of their sovereign rights,” the Israeli representative said. “There is no valid reason to further discuss this matter in any WHO forum.”
The Trump administration attributed its decision to withdrawal in large part to the WHO’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also complained about the fact that the U.S. paid more to sustain the WHO than China, which has a substantially larger population. The dues structure for United Nations agencies — WHO is one — is based on the size of a member country’s economy, not its population.
At the World Health Assembly last May, China announced it would increase its funding for WHO.
At the World Health Assembly last May, China announced it would increase its funding for WHO.
Two months after Trump signed the executive order announcing that the U.S. would withdraw from the WHO, Argentina — led by Javier Milei, a close ally of Trump’s — announced it, too, and was pulling out. Citing similar complaints about the WHO’s handling of the Covid pandemic, Argentina said it would leave the agency’s fold on March 17 of this year.
The matter of withdrawing from the WHO is more complicated than it may seem. In fact, a document prepared for the executive board on the issue suggested countries are not able to quit the WHO.
At the agency’s founding there were discussions about whether to include a process for withdrawing, but a decision was made not to. The U.S. Congress would only agree to the country joining if there was a way for it to withdraw if the need arose, and passed the 1948 joint resolution. The proviso was accepted by the WHO’s founders, and the country became a member on June 21, 1948.
Because no such provision existed in the case of Argentina, the discussion of its withdrawal on Friday was longer than it was for the United States.
Though some countries reserved their positions on Argentina’s withdrawal, a number made it clear they felt that a country could not be compelled to remain in the organization. The Israeli representative suggested that it was “unfathomable” to imagine that the WHO’s founders would have meant to grant a single country — the United States — the option of exiting the agency if it wished.
~ statnews.com
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