NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The United States will exit the World Health Organization, President Donald Trump said on Monday, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
Trump said the WHO had failed to act independently from the "inappropriate political influence of WHO member states" and required "unfairly onerous payments" from the U.S. that are disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.
"World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It's not going to happen anymore," Trump said at the signing.
The move means the U.S. will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months’ time and stop all financial contributions to its work. The United States is by far the WHO’s biggest financial backer, contributing around 18% of its overall funding. WHO's most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.
Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected. He took steps to quit the body in 2020, during his first term as president, accusing the WHO of aiding China's efforts to "mislead the world" about the origins of COVID.
WHO vigorously denies the allegation and says it continues to press Beijing to share data to determine whether COVID emerged from human contact with infected animals or due to research into similar viruses in a domestic laboratory.
Reporting by Patrick Wingrove; Editing by Caroline Humer and Shri Navaratnam
