ILO chief says US ‘yet' to pay its dues as Trump's ‘America First' policy risks budget cuts
Washington, under President Donald Trump, has stepped away from several UN agencies and programmes as it pursues an 'America First' policy that spurns multilateral bodies and pacts.
'Have they paid for the current year? Not yet. I always want to add 'yet' – not yet,' ILO chief Gilbert Houngbo told journalists.
The ILO – devoted to promoting labour rights and decent employment – was not currently looking to revise its budget.
'It's not something that I'm contemplating,' Houngbo said.
Under a February executive order, Trump directed his government to look at withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council, the UNRWA relief agency for Palestinians, and UNESCO, the UN's education, science and culture agency.
He has also pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord and his country has started the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
The move has hit UN agency budgets hard, as the United States is often their biggest donor.
Houngbo, a former premier of Togo, said that the ILO stood apart from the other UN agencies in terms of US priorities.
'Maybe I'm biased by saying this (but) the ILO is not necessarily viewed as negative,' he said.
He noted that, while the United States had closed some 50 projects at the ILO – forcing the termination of around 200 jobs – it was part of the agency's board which in March approved the next ILO budget.
That budget needs to be validated by all 187 member countries in a June 2-13 congress in Geneva.
Should the United States – which accounts for 22 percent of the ILO's budget – end up not paying its dues, 'you may have to act accordingly on the worst-case scenario, you may have to consider a revised budget,' Houngbo said.
He added that the ILO was about to start a cost-reduction programme that would include voluntary job reductions, moving some operations to cheaper cities elsewhere and using AI for translation work.
That tilt was being made under a broader initiative in the UN started in March to improve productivity under tighter budgets. — AFP
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