Trump to stop funding for Palestinian refugees
Donald Trump has moved to reshape policy on the Middle East by ending funding of UN aid programs for Palestinian refugees.
Donald Trump has moved to reshape US policy on the Middle East and global trade by ending funding of UN aid programs for Palestinian refugees and threatening to pull out of the World Trade Organisation.
The moves underline the US President’s increasingly assertive “America First” approach to foreign policy as he questions long-held traditions of the post-war international order.
In a move that will be welcomed by Israel, the administration plans to end its funding for Palestinians via the US Relief and Works Agency and will call for a steep drop in the number of Palestinians recognised as refugees.
It follows a decision last week to cut US aid to Palestinians by $US200 million ($275m) as relations between Washington and the Palestinian Authority sink to a new low. The US has said the $US200m that was earmarked for Gaza and the West Bank will now be spent on “high-priority projects elsewhere”.
The US does not agree on how the UNWRA spends its funds, with Mr Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton recently describing the body as a “failed mechanism” for providing aid to Palestinian refugees.
The administration will call for a reduction in the number of recognised Palestinian refugees from five million to a tenth of that number, a move that would eliminate for many their so-called right to return to Israel.
The move is part of a broader shift by the Trump administration to slash US assistance to Palestine in the wake of heavy criticism by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas following Mr Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said this week that Palestinian criticism of the US was a key factor in the administration’s new approach.
“First of all, you’re looking at the fact that, yes, there’s an endless number of refugees that continue to get assistance, but more importantly, the Palestinians continue to bash America,” she said.
Aid agencies warn that US aid cuts will hurt Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The decision to end US aid to the UNWRA, reported by The Washington Post, is expected to be announced by the White House within weeks.
It comes as Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is overseeing the formulation of a Palestinian-Israeli peace plan the White House is expected to release later this year or early next year.
Mr Trump yesterday threatened to further up-end the global trade system by issuing a warning that the US could pull out of the WTO. “If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Mr Trump told Bloomberg News.
The WTO, founded in 1995, is the regulator of international global trading rules to ensure that trade is conducted as freely and fairly as possible.
But Mr Trump believes WTO decisions have frequently discriminated against the US. He said yesterday the establishment of the WTO was “the single worst trade deal ever made”.
Any move by the US to pull out of the WTO would rattle markets around the world. But the administration yesterday tried to play down the President’s comments. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin called the idea “an exaggeration”, while other members of Mr Trump’s cabinet have previously described it as premature.
Mr Trump said yesterday it was “not totally wrong” that he planned to carry out his threat to impose $US200 billion of new tariffs on China as early as next week.
The move would be the biggest move yet in the growing trade war between the two countries as the President seeks to force China to take steps to reduce its trade surplus with Washington.
Mr Trump’s threats towards the WTO and China come at a tumultuous time for the President on trade policy.
This week he announced a tentative deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement without including NAFTA’s third partner, Canada. Canada is negotiating with the US and Mexico to ensure the final deal includes all three countries.
Mr Trump campaigned in 2016 on replacing NAFTA, a deal which he has described as “a disaster” for American workers.
Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia
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