WASHINGTON: The Trump administration said Wednesday it won’t pay more than $60 million in dues it owes to the World Health Organization and will use the money instead to pay down other contributions to the United Nations. The announcement came just a day after the White House announced the U.S. would not participate in a WHO-run project to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.
The decision to withhold roughly $62 million in outstanding 2020 dues to the WHO is part of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his allegations that the agency has been improperly influenced by China.
Despite proceeding with the withdrawal, administration officials said the U.S. will continue to participate in select WHO meetings and make one-time contributions to specific programs during a one-year wind-down period. Those programs include polio eradication projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan, humanitarian relief in Libya and Syria and efforts to combat influenza.
The funding decisions follow Trump’s announcement in July that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO effective July 2021 and instructing his administration to wind down funding and cooperation with the agency. At the time of the announcement, the U.S. had already paid about $52 million of its assessed 2020 dues of $120 million.
During the one-year wind-down, the officials said the U.S. would continue to participate in select WHO technical and policy meetings that have a direct bearing on U.S. health, commercial and national security interests. “We will consider those on a case-by-case basis,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Nerissa Cook.
The officials, from the U.S. Agency for International Development and departments of State and Health and Human Services, did not say which other U.N. agencies would get the $62 million being withheld from WHO or whether it would be used to pay down U.S. arrears to the world body’s general fund.

Press Trust of India