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 The United States plans to leave the Geneva-based WHO on July 6,
2021, after President Donald Trump accused it of becoming a puppet
for China during the coronavirus pandemic. The WHO has rejected
Trump's assertion.
A WHO spokeswoman said on Thursday in an email response to a request
for comment: "We refer you to our previous statements of regret
regarding the U.S. decision to withdraw. We await further details,
which we will consider carefully."
Under a 1948 joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, Trump had to
give one-year notice of the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO and is
required to pay what Washington's owes for the organization's
current fiscal year.
Nerissa Cook, State Department Bureau of International Organization
Affairs deputy assistant secretary of state, said the United States
currently owes the WHO some $18 million for financial year 2019 and
$62 million for financial year 2020.
"Those together are being reprogrammed to the U.N. to pay the
regular U.N. assessment," said Cook, referring to money that
Washington is required to pay the United Nations in New York.
Lawrence Gostin, a university professor at Georgetown Law in
Washington, D.C., said in a tweet that redirecting WHO funds is
"unethical...and patently unlawful". The United States had to meet
all financial obligations, he said, adding: "Trump is acting
unilaterally, w/o (without) Congress & in violation of the law".
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Dr Alma Golden, U.S. Agency for International Development assistant
administrator for global health, said that in most cases Washington had
identified new partners to continue the global health assistance it had carried
out with the WHO.
But she said a one-time payment of $68 million would be made to the WHO for
health assistance in Libya and Syria and efforts to eradicate polio in priority
countries because these "reflect the few cases in which WHO has the unique
capability that an alternate partner could not replicate at this time."
Trump's political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, has said he will
rejoin the WHO if he defeats Trump in the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by
Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Timothy Heritage)
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