PHM-Exch> Fwd: Trump Undermines WHO, UN System b7

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Jomo <jomoks at yahoo.com>


Trump Undermines WHO, UN System

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury

*KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Sep 1 2020 (IPS) *- After accusing the World
Health Organization (WHO) of pro-China bias, President Donald Trump
announced US withdrawal from the UN agency. Although the US created the UN
system for the post-Second World War new international order, Washington
has often had to struggle in recent decades to ensure that it continues to
serve changing US interests.

*Invisible virus trumps POTUS *

In early July, Washington gave the required one-year notice officially
advising the UN of its intention to withdraw from the WHO, created by the
US as the global counterpart to the now century-old Pan-American Health
Organization (PAHO).

However, the White House decision violates US law as it does not have
express approval of the US Congress required by the 1948 joint resolution
of both US legislative houses enabling US membership of the WHO.

Trump had already refused to meet US financial commitments. This too
violates the 1948 resolution requiring the US to fully meet its financial
obligations for the current fiscal year before leaving, probably presuming
that earlier dues have been fully paid up.

The WHO needs more funding than ever to address the COVID-19 pandemic by
increasing cooperation, coordination and awareness, establishing standards
and protocols, and securing medical supplies for all, especially needy
countries.

The world would have been much worse off without the WHO, e.g., as it tries
to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are affordably accessible to all. By
contrast, Trump’s jingoistic policies and actions have even involved
piracy.

After concluding a favourable trade deal early in the new year, Trump
praised China on 24 January: “China has been working very hard to contain
the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and
transparency”.

As POTUS’s failure to better handle the COVID-19 pandemic has become
apparent to most, he has created scapegoats to gloss over his gross
mismanagement, demonizing China to also serve larger political purposes.
Growing Western paranoia about China’s rise has contributed to collective
amnesia.

POTUS ( Trump's tweeter link) has accused the WHO of deference to China and
deliberate failure to provide accurate information about COVID-19. Despite
disproven and unproven allegations, Trump’s allegations of WHO bias for
China have dominated international public opinion.

*WHO’s mixed record *

WHO policy decisions are made by the World Health Assembly (WHA) with
almost 200 Member States. As in other UN bodies, decisions adopted with
developing countries in the majority have often not been to Washington’s
liking.

Without the bullying US presence, WHO’s functioning may improve, but the
WHO will be weakened by reduced resources and possibly, sabotage. It will
increasingly depend on other sources of funding, many private, US-based,
which is likely to compromise its policies and practices.

Already, the WHO Secretariat has been widely criticised for favouring US
interests, e.g., by procuring from US companies. US and other transnational
companies greatly influence WHO policy and management decisions in their
own favour.

Halfdan Mahler, a three-term WHO Director-General, warned that the
pharmaceutical industry’s “unhealthy influence” was “taking over WHO”.
Thus, any balanced inquiry of WHO bias should include the influence of big
pharmaceutical corporations, especially as the agency increasingly depends
on private funding.

Despite an official inquiry finding “no wrong doing” after a Council of
Europe committee alleged possible conflicts of interest in WHO’s
declaration of an A/H1N1 swine flu pandemic, criticisms of conflicts of
interest remain.

The *British Medical Journal *found that key WHO influenza pandemic
planning scientific advisers had been paid by pharmaceutical firms that
stood to gain from the guidance they were preparing, i.e., possibly
involving conflicts of interest never publicly declared.

*Financial blackmail *

UN organizations depend on mandatory annual contributions by Member States,
determined according to agreed scales of assessment relative to their
wealth and population. When a Member State fails to pay dues for the
preceding two years, it loses voting rights.


The US should pay 22% of WHO’s annual budget, and the European Union 30. Of
the total of US$489 million for 2020, the assessed contribution for the US
came to US$115 million.

However, the US has regularly defaulted, partially or wholly, on
contributions due to the WHO and the UN secretariat among others. For
instance, the US only paid a third of its assessed WHO contribution for
2019.

Thus, while low-income countries duly pay their statutory contributions,
the world’s largest economy selectively withholds payments due in order to
influence UN agencies’ policies, decisions and practices.

Nonetheless, a larger share of WHO expenditure than the assessed US
budgetary contribution ends up in the US to procure medicines, equipment
and services.

*US threatens UN multilateralism*
Washington’s refusal to pay its WHO and other UN dues reflects its attitude
to the democratization of the multilateral organizations it once created.
US efforts to financially squeeze UN agencies are nothing new, having long
refused to pay dues to the UN secretariat on various dubious grounds.

With its veto, the US has been able to ensure that the UN’s most strategic
organ, the Security Council, could never undermine its interests despite
the nominal ‘one-country-one-vote’ governance of much of the UN system.

Undoubtedly, like much of the rest of UN system, the WHO needs reform,
e.g., to improve accountability in decision-making, but progress has been
blocked by various divides, with support for Trump’s accusations and vague
reform demands driven primarily by political considerations.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) has also come under US arm-twisting, with the US and Israel
pulling out in December 2018 following its overwhelming General Conference
decision to admit Palestine as a member.

When Ronald Reagan was president, the US had quit UNESCO in 1984 after
claiming that then Senegalese Director-General Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow had been
“politicizing” the organization. The US only rejoined in 2013 during
Obama’s second term.

Meanwhile, the US remains outside many other global multilateral
initiatives, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Kyoto
Protocol, the International Criminal Court and the Basel Convention, and
has also withdrawn from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) Paris Agreement and the UN Human Rights Council.
Even if he concedes the presidency in January, Trump’s jingoistic legacy
has already irreversibly poisoned US public sentiment and international
politics. Multilateralism and the UN system may well suffer irreversible
collateral damage until an unlikely new ‘coalition of the willing’ rises to
the challenge.


LINK:
Trump undermines WHO, UN system
<https://www.ksjomo.org/post/trump-undermines-who-un-system>
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