R-CALF officials are pleased the Trump administration is ratcheting up pressure against the World Trade Organization and is looking at possibly blocking approval of their biennial budget and halting its work next year. R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard says the WTO has been exceeding the scope of its authority and essentially trying to legislate on a global scale.

He says a prime example of the WTO exceeding its authority is when in 2015 it caused the U.S. to throw out its Country of Origin Labeling law.

The U.S. provides the most amount of funding to the WTO and in 2019 gave the agency $23 million. Bullard says that doesn’t make sense given the fact we haven’t been happy with their decisions but also because the U.S. doesn’t need them.

Earlier the Trump administration had threatened to withdraw from the WTO entirely.