The United States Chamber of Commerce is siding with the World Health Organization (WHO), slamming President Trump’s decision to halt American taxpayer-funding of the global bureaucratic group due to their pro-China stances in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that he would be halting all American taxpayer funding of WHO for helping China mismanage and cover up the spread of the coronavirus in late January and early February. Since 2010, American taxpayers have gifted WHO with $3.5 billion in funds to operate as a largely unaccountable global body.
Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Myron Brilliant sided with WHO bureaucrats in a statement, citing that WHO needs American taxpayer money to fight the coronavirus in developing foreign countries:
The Chamber supports a reformed but functional World Health Organization, and U.S. leadership and involvement are essential to ensuring its transparency and accountability going forward. However, cutting the WHO’s funding during the COVID-19 pandemic is not in U.S. interests given the organization’s critical role assisting other countries — particularly in the developing world — in their response. [Emphasis added]
The Chamber of Commerce has been a longtime opponent of Trump’s seeking to hold China accountable on trade, continuing their support for free trade at all costs. Throughout 2018 and 2019, Chamber of Commerce executives campaigned against the administration’s popular tariffs on Chinese imports.
Most prominently, the Chamber of Commerce was influential — along with GOP establishment lawmakers — in helping to tank a plan that would have allowed Trump to readily impose reciprocal tariffs on foreign countries to level the trade playing field. The plan, specifically, was geared towards stopping China’s economic rise.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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