Washington | As The Australian Financial Review reported exclusively last month, Donald Trump is rapidly turning the cannons of his trade war to breaking down the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and rebuilding it in ways he says will be fairer to the US and its workers.

While the President remains typically vague on the details of what this would mean in practice, Trump has made it crystal clear that the sleepy Geneva-based organisation is about to get a full dose of his disrupt-and-conquer approach.