US could redirect its WHO funds to other groups: Trump officials

WASHINGTON • The United States could redirect to other aid groups some US$400 million (S$571 million) it would have paid the World Health Organisation this year, senior Trump administration officials have said after President Donald Trump halted funding for the United Nations agency over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Washington has already paid the Geneva-based WHO some US$58 million this year, the officials said on Wednesday, half of what it is required to pay for the year - known as an assessed contribution.

"We're stopping that second tranche," said a Trump administration official, adding that "we can very easily give this money to the Red Cross" or similar organisations.

The US also provides several hundred million dollars to the WHO every year in voluntary funding tied to specific programmes, such as polio eradication, vaccine-preventable disease, HIV and hepatitis, tuberculosis and maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.

It was not immediately clear how much voluntary funding the US had already provided for WHO programmes this year.

"We can find another partner that is not the WHO. That money will be spent with other partners," a second senior Trump administration official said.

Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that US funding would be halted while Washington reviewed the WHO's role "in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus", a process which he said was likely to take 60 to 90 days.

The move prompted widespread condemnation as reported global coronavirus infections passed the 2-million mark.

The head of the WHO, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he regretted Mr Trump's decision, and added that now is the time for the world to be united in the fight against the virus.

Mr Trump on Tuesday also accused the WHO of promoting China's "disinformation" about the virus, saying it likely led to a wider outbreak than otherwise would have occurred.

Mr Trump's decision came amid criticism of his administration's response to the worst pandemic in a century from some of his fellow Republicans as well as Democrats.

Just this week, some Republican governors pushed back on Mr Trump's assertion that he had "total authority" to order states to reopen businesses that have been closed to stop the virus' spread.

The senior administration officials said that the US Congress was unable to stop them from redirecting WHO funding elsewhere.

Some Democrats disagreed, promising that they would try to include funding for the WHO in the next coronavirus relief Bill.

"This decision is dangerous, illegal and will be swiftly challenged," Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Two sources who track US funding to international organisations have said that Mr Trump's action was serious.

"This is not an idle threat. There are actual implications to this," one said.

The sources said the US Agency for International Development had been due to make a voluntary payment last week of US$43 million to the WHO for polio surveillance and it was now blocked. REUTERS