Trump orders US withdrawal from 66 treaties and international bodies
In the crosshairs of the US President's unilateralist eagerness are the climate and renewables, but also forums on population, migrants, culture
Donald Trump slaps the world in the face again. The US President's imperialist-nationalist frenzy, fresh from the blitz in Venezuela, the threats to nations from Colombia to Mexico, the promises to conquer Greenland, found expression in an edict with which he announced, in a single day, the withdrawal of the United States from no less than 66 international agreements, organisations, bodies and commissions often within the United Nations but not only.
The retreats include many commitments on the environment, starting with the historic and original climate agreement of 34 years ago, not only the more recent and voluntary Paris Protocol of 2016 from which it had already decided on an exit on 20 January. The choice now to massively trash treaties, memberships and support for global forums has been attributed to the fact that they 'no longer correspond to the interests' of the country.
It will take time to make the withdrawal contained in the White House executive order effective. Nor is it clear that Trump has the authority he claims: the Climate Treaty was unanimously ratified by the US Senate in 1992 and it is doubtful that the President can act alone. The Supreme Court has never resolved the issue. But this is certainly not the first time Trump has expanded presidential powers, domestic and global, at his discretion. There is also a precedent: George W. Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002.
In any case, the political signal is now immediate and unequivocal. America First, against allies and not just adversaries. The list is long: alongside the historic climate treaty UNFCCC (UN Framework Coonvention on Climate Change), Washington is abandoning, among others, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the highest UN body on climate science, and then the International Renewable Energy Association on renewable energy sources, the International Solar Alliance and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Again, it exits bodies on labour, migration, population, the UN Population Fund that provides assistance on reproductive and sexual health. The US will break off relations with the UN International Law Commission, the Peacebuilding Commission, the Alliance of Civilizations, the Register of Conventional Arms. Other bodies liquidated by Trump: the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organisation, the Pan-American Institute for Geography and History the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.
