Chuck Darwin<p>A U.S. delegate told a March 4 <a href="https://c.im/tags/WTO" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WTO</span></a> budget meeting that its payments to the 2024 and 2025 budgets were <br>👉on hold pending a review of contributions to international organisations <br>-- and that it would inform the WTO of the outcome at an unspecified date, two trade sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said.</p><p>A third trade source confirmed their account and said the WTO was coming up with a <a href="https://c.im/tags/PlanB" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PlanB</span></a> in case of a prolonged funding pause, without elaborating.</p><p>The WTO has already been hobbled by a U.S. move in 2019 during Trump's first term to block new judge appointments to its top appeals court, <br>which left its key dispute settlement system only partially functional. </p><p>Washington had accused the WTO Appellate Body of judicial overreach in trade disputes.</p><p>The Geneva-based trade watchdog had an annual budget of 205 million Swiss francs ($232.06 million) in 2024. </p><p>The United States was due to contribute about 11% of that based on a fees system that is proportionate to its share of global trade, according to public WTO documents.</p><p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-suspends-financial-contributions-wto-trade-sources-say-2025-03-27/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">reuters.com/world/us-suspends-</span><span class="invisible">financial-contributions-wto-trade-sources-say-2025-03-27/</span></a></p>