Coronavirus: Donald Trump to fund WHO on par with China
Donald Trump is considering restoring partial funding to the World Health Organisation.
Donald Trump said the US was considering restoring partial funding to the World Health Organisation after he froze contributions to the UN agency over what he claimed was its mismanagement of the coronavirus response.
The US President on Sunday (AEST) said his administration was weighing a proposal to provide funding to the group on par with what China is contributing. The move, Mr Trump said, would reduce overall US funding to the group by 90 per cent.
Responding to Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter, “Lou, this is just one of numerous concepts being considered under which we would pay 10% of what we have been paying over many years, matching much lower China payments”.
He added that he hadn’t made a final decision.
Dobbs had criticised the administration for considering restoring partial funding to the group. The Fox Business host pointed to a Fox News report that cited a draft letter to the WHO, which said the Trump administration will “agree to pay up to what China pays in assessed contributions”. Mr Trump said last month that the US would pause funding to the WHO, pointing to what he called the organisation’s failure to adequately respond to the virus. He also accused the WHO of having a pro-China bias.
In the two-year period ending at the close of 2019, the US had contributed $US893m to the group, according to WHO records. The administration has previously said the US provided $US453m to the WHO in fiscal year 2019. China contributed just under $US86,000 during that period. In recent months, Beijing has increased its funding to the group as a result of the pandemic, announcing an additional $US50m in contributions. Democrats and public health officials criticised Mr Trump for freezing US contributions to the group, warning that it could complicate efforts to respond to the pandemic.
The number of US deaths from the new coronavirus surpassed 88,000 on Sunday as Mr Trump was expected to meet congressional Republicans at Camp David after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed a new round of stimulus measures.
The $US3 trillion relief package was approved on Saturday, after data released earlier showed that American consumers pulled back on spending and factories cut output at the fastest pace in decades.
The House package, which passed 208 to 199 with 14 House Democrats voting against it, includes about $US1 trillion in direct aid to states and localities to deal with the effects of the pandemic.
Republicans made clear that the bill had no prospect of advancing in the GOP-led Senate, but Mr Trump hadn’t ruled out additional economic relief for states and cities grappling with the pandemic, as long as it didn’t constitute what he considered a bailout, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said.
The Wall Street Journal
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