Donald Trump’s move to break away from the World Trade Organisation by forming its own Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act is likely to have “silent but deadly” repercussions, commentators have said.
A leaked draft of the act – dubbed the FART bill – shows that the President is set to abandon global trade rules in favour of bespoke agreements with different countries.
The draft bill would see the President given unilateral power to ignore global trade rules and set his own tariffs for different countries, edging towards the sort of governance warned about by The London Economic’s Darragh Roche here.
A source told Axisos that the bill would “be the equivalent of walking away from the WTO” said it was “insane” adding: “The good news is Congress would never give this authority to the president.”
Mr Trump’s former head of communications, Anthony Scaramucci, wrote: “The United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, aka the U.S. FART Act, stinks. American consumers pay for tariffs. Time to switch tactics.”
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