US won’t pay US$60 million owed to WHO after Trump pull-out
- Administration says money for World Health Organisation dues will go instead towards other United Nations contributions
- Move comes day after Washington said it would not join WHO-run coronavirus vaccine project
The Trump administration said on Wednesday it will not pay more than US$60 million in dues it owes to the World Health Organisation and will use the money instead to pay down other contributions to the United Nations.
The announcement came just a day after the White House announced the US would not take part in a WHO-run project to develop and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine.
The decision to withhold roughly US$62 million in outstanding 2020 dues to the WHO is part of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the organisation over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his allegations that the agency has been improperly influenced by China.
Despite proceeding with the withdrawal, administration officials said the US will continue to participate in select WHO meetings and make one-time contributions to specific programmes during a one-year wind-down period. Those programmes include polio eradication projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan, humanitarian relief in Libya and Syria and efforts to combat influenza.
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During the one-year wind-down, the officials said the US would continue to participate in select WHO technical and policy meetings that have a direct bearing on US health, commercial and national security interests.
“We will consider those on a case-by-case basis,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organisations Nerissa Cook.
The officials, from the US Agency for International Development and departments of State and Health and Human Services, did not say which other UN agencies would get the US$62 million being withheld from WHO or whether it would be used to pay down US arrears to the world body’s general fund.
Nor was it clear whether how the US would handle tens of millions of dollars in back dues it owes to the WHO. Under US law, arrears must be paid before the United States can withdraw from most international organisations.
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The one-time exemptions for specific programmes will apply to up to US$40 million in funding for flu vaccination programmes, according to Garrett Grigsby, the director of the HHS global affairs office, and up to US$68 million for polio and Libya and Syria operations, according to USAID’s Assistant Administrator for Global Health Dr Alma Golden.
On Tuesday, the administration announced it would not work with the coronavirus vaccine project because it does not want to be constrained by multilateral groups like the WHO.
Some nations have worked directly to secure supplies of vaccine, but others are pooling efforts to ensure success against a disease that has no geographical boundaries. More than 150 countries are setting up the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or Covax.
That cooperative effort, linked with the WHO, would allow nations to take advantage of a portfolio of potential vaccines to ensure their citizens are quickly covered by whichever ones are deemed effective. The WHO says even governments making deals with individual vaccine makers would benefit from joining Covax because it would provide backup vaccines in case the ones being made through bilateral deals with manufacturers are not successful.
