Kremlin says WTO's existence would be in doubt if U.S., others left

[August 14, 2019]  MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the existence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) would be in serious doubt if major economies such as the United States left it, a prospect raised a day earlier by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters are pictured in Geneva, Switzerland, July 26, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

The Kremlin made the comment in response to a question about U.S. media reports which said Trump had threatened on Tuesday to pull out of the WTO over what he described as the organization's unfair treatment of the United States.

"It is obvious that the existence of keystone international economic organizations (like the WTO) would be called into serious question after the exit of the biggest economies on earth," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn and Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Osborn)

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