bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agencies

US President Donald Trump has ordered the drafting of legislation that would mean abandoning key disciplines agreed at the World Trade Organisation, and instead adopt a United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, or Fart Act.
Axios reported on Friday that Trump wanted to leave the WTO, a story dismissed by US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as “wrong” and “an exaggeration”.
The website followed up on Sunday by publishing what it said was a draft bill.
The legislation that would be known by its acronym, the Fart Act, was greeted with loud amusement on Twitter.
The act would allow Trump to ignore the WTO’s “most favoured nation” principle, which stops countries trading on different terms with different trading partners unless they have a formal trade agreement, Axios said.

It would also allow “reciprocal tariffs”, so Trump could impose US tariffs on particular goods equal to the tariff charged on US exports of those goods by another country.
The draft bill published by Axios did not mention the WTO, but its report said the law would allow the United States to disregard tariff limits agreed at the WTO since 1995.
Axios quoted a source familiar with the bill as saying the bill was “insane” and Congress would never consent to it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the US FART Act. (This is why you don’t staff your White House with ridiculous amateurs.) #brownMandMs pic.twitter.com/qIFRJBEDio
— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) July 2, 2018

While the US can exit the WTO, it’s uncertain whether Trump could do so without approval from Congress, where many lawmakers - including Republican proponents of free trade - would likely put up a fight.

“now he’s going to threaten the WTO with what he calls the FART Act. hashtag pull my finger.” pic.twitter.com/yDwCcmAwq2
— cartogeek (@cartogeek) July 2, 2018

Trump was briefed on the draft in late May, Axios said, and most officials thought it was unrealistic or unworkable, apart from Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro.
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told Axios that the administration was not preparing to roll out such legislation.
Still, it immediately drew ridicule.
There were debates about whether the name of the act was intentional, while internet users responded with jokes, memes and even poetry.

The POTUS would like, for a start,
More power to rip trade apart,
Reported the press
Upon its success
In catching a draft of his FART.
— Limericking (@Limericking) July 2, 2018


Free headline: Trump's FART Act is Just Hot Air.
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) July 2, 2018


As an editor who writes some headlines at the NY Post can I just say I’m really psyched about the FART Act
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) July 2, 2018

Don Moynihan, a professor of government at Madison University in Wisconsin, noted that Trump might struggle to get the world to take his policies seriously given the naming snafu.
He wrote on Twitter: “‘The world is laughing at us,’ says Trump, before proposing the FART Act (Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act).”

People are asking me if this is true - it is true. Trump admin is proposing a FART Act https://t.co/gVH68nUn4r pic.twitter.com/QVB58CCt03
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) July 2, 2018

Journalists delighted in the name, while others suggested it could be a subtle act of rebellion from a disillusioned staff member.
One of the few engaging with the substance of the bill, and not just its packaging, was Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci, Trump’s short-lived former director of communications, who said that asking American consumers to pay for tariffs “stinks”.

WTO has its flaws, but the “United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act," aka the U.S. FART Act, stinks. American consumers pay for tariffs. Time to switch tactics. https://t.co/OfyOFA1neU
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 2, 2018

The Guardian, Reuters, Bloomberg


A complicated new EU-China showdown is quietly taking shape

EU abandons WTO case against China over alleged coercion of Lithuania

The rise of a Beijing-led ‘Global South Consensus’

Multilateralism isn’t dead, despite a Trumpian year

World Trade Organization (WTO)

Twitter gets wind of Donald Trump abandoning WTO rules … and adopting the US Fart Act

US President Donald Trump at a recent campaign rally. Trump has long criticised the WTO for allowing countries such as China to levy high tariffs on US goods such as cars, even as its economy has matured. Photo: AFP

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin departs the North Lawn after speaking live with Fox and Friends TV from the White House in Washington, U.S. June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

Oye Trump! Mexico’s next president thinks you’re erratic and arrogant, and a lot else, too

A supporter of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador carries a cut-out of the candidate in downtown Mexico City on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Newly elected Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, running for "Juntos haremos historia" party cheers his supporters at a hotel after winning general elections, in Mexico City, on July 1, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / PEDRO PARDO

Supporters of the presidential candidate for the "Juntos haremos historia" coalition, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, celebrate at the Zocalo square in Mexico City, after getting the preliminary results of the general elections on July 1, 2018. Anti-establishment leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won Mexico's presidential election Sunday by a large margin, according to exit polls, in a landmark break with the parties that have governed for nearly a century. / AFP PHOTO / ULISES RUIZ

A supporter holds up a poster of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after polls closed in the presidential election, in Mexico City, Mexico July 1, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Trump’s ‘America First’ on immigration leaves a divided nation seeking a moral compass

A child cries as she talks about being separated from her father, during a protest against the separation of families at the US-Mexico border, in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 18. Photo: AP

epa06853470 Thousands march in protest of the immigration policies of US President Donald J. Trump in Chicago, Illinois, USA, 30 June 2018. Rallies in cities throughout the country have been organized to protest the Trump administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration policies and the detention of children and families. EPA-EFE/KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI

US ambassador to Estonia resigns over frustration with Donald Trump

The US ambassador to Estonia, James Melville, will retire from the State Department next month, a move he reportedly said was prompted by Donald Trump’s jibes and treatment of European allies. Photo: AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to U.S. President Donald Trump during the second day of the G7 meeting in Charlevoix city of La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 9, 2018. Bundesregierung/Jesco Denzel/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

News

World

United States & Canada

Leaked Fart Act draft reportedly suggests US abandons WTO rules


The United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, or Fart Act, has been greeted with loud amusement on Twitter.


Twitter gets wind of Donald Trump abandoning WTO rules … and adopting the US Fart Act

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Leaked Fart Act draft reportedly suggests US abandons WTO rules

Leaked Fart Act draft reportedly suggests US abandons WTO rules