AFP, Geneva

The United States has not paid its 2024 dues to the World Trade Organization and is therefore now deemed to be in “arrears”, the WTO’s spokesman said Friday.

“The chair of the committee on budget, finance, and administration informed members during the General Council meeting in February that the United States is currently in ‘Category 1’ arrears,” Ismaila Dieng told AFP.

The United States did not pay its contribution for 2024, he said. Washington has also not yet paid its dues for 2025, though contributions from the WTO’s 166 members often do not come in until mid-year.

Last year, the United States was due to pay around 23.2 million Swiss francs ($26.3 million) -- amounting to roughly 11 percent of the WTO’s budget.

Category 1 arrears -- the least serious of three levels -- consist of those that have not paid their contributions for at least one year, but for less than two years.

The nine members currently in Category 1 arrears are Angola, Chile, Eswatini, Grenada, Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Uganda and the United States.

WTO members in this category are not permitted to chair the Geneva-based global trade body’s various bodies.

They are also not permitted to receive WTO documentation and are subject to reports at meetings of the organisation’s General Council, its highest-level decision-making body in Geneva. “Generally, arrears can impact the operational capacity of the WTO secretariat,” said Dieng.

“But the secretariat continues to manage its resources prudently and has plans in place to enable it to operate within the financial limitations imposed by any arrears.”

On February 4, Trump signed an executive order sparking a 180-day review all international organisations which the US is involved in or funds, to determine whether they are contrary to US interests or could be reformed.