Report: Trump administration drafted a bill that abandons key WTO rules

(Image credit: Yuri Gripas-Pool/Getty Images)

last updated 2 July 2018

A draft of a Trump administration bill leaked to Axios, called the United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, would give President Trump the ability to raise tariffs whenever he wants and negotiate directly with any country.

"It would be the equivalent of walking away from the [World Trade Organization] and our commitments there without us actually notifying our withdrawal," a person familiar with the draft told Axios. "The good news is Congress would never give this authority to the president" because the bill is "insane," the person added.

In late May, Trump was briefed on the draft, and most people close to him realize that the bill will go nowhere; Axios reports that adviser Peter Navarro thinks the bill has a shot, but White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short told him it would be "dead on arrival" and no one in Congress would support it. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told Axios "the only way this would be news is if this were actual legislation that the administration was preparing to roll out, but it's not. Principals have not even met to review any text of legislation on reciprocal trade."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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