Kremlin Says WTO's Existence Would Be In Doubt If the U.S., Others Left

[rainman + 263]

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the existence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) would be in serious doubt if major economies such as the United States left it, a prospect raised a day earlier by U.S. President Donald Trump. The Kremlin made the comment in response to a question about U.S. media reports which said Trump had threatened on Tuesday to pull out of the WTO over what he described as the organization’s unfair treatment of the United States. “It is obvious that the existence of keystone international economic organizations (like the WTO) would be called into serious question after the exit of the biggest economies on earth,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
 

[Pavel + 384]

Kremlin says a lot of things, but the aim is the same: establish Russian power and influence where it is possible

[BALBOA + 37]

Crisis as a permanent shape...

[joze44 + 39]

They already said that the WTO needs to be reformed mirroring President Trump's rhetoric. The tiny hurdle, only 164 member states have to agree...

[50 shades of black + 254]

So, a new name on the list: NATO, UN and now WTO... Do we stay anywhere? 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

12 hours ago, 50 shades of black said:

So, a new name on the list: NATO, UN and now WTO... Do we stay anywhere? 

Only in the ones that are doing more good than bad and are not robbing our pocketbook. IMHO it is better to stay in and try to change the course of these organizations, but leaving is an eventual option. We need to make alliances that help us as well as others. I would focus on Mexico and Canada first, then Britain and South America. Europe is doing their own thing. 

[Michael Sanches + 187]

17 hours ago, 50 shades of black said:

So, a new name on the list: NATO, UN and now WTO... Do we stay anywhere? 

Staying is fine. The problem is that we let ourselves be manipulated. For example,

1. Staying in NATO is fine. We just should limit our military power to 5% of the troops, etc.

2. Straight of Hormuz: Announce a schedule of decreasing patrols, say 11 months next year, 10 months the year after, etc. The months we vacate are up to other people.

3. WTO: We have the power to restrict our imports, unilaterally, in proportion to violators. We simply give import credits to our exporters who can give/sell them to whoever they want. (This would include "service" exporters.) Likewise, we can say no toy imports until they allow "xyz" imports. When they sue us at the WTO, we counter sue.

4. UN: Next time they need peacekeepers, we say, "O.K., our 10% of the force is ready. Where do you want us to assemble with the other 90% before we go to the troubled region."

Overall, our problem is that we try/insist to change the behavior of other countries. We can only control our own behavior. But, we refuse to control ourselves. We grab all the immediate gratification we can ignoring all future benefits we would gain with self control.