Splash247: Trump quits anti-piracy and trade bodies in broad UN retreat

he Trump administration yesterday announced it is withdrawing from 66 organisations, a mixture of NGOs and United Nations’ bodies. 

Of note for the shipping industry is the US decision to pull out of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combatting Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (RECAAP), as well as the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and UN Oceans, an inter-agency coordination mechanism on ocean and coastal issues within the United Nations system.. 

Secretary of state Marco Rubio, who led the review, commented on the 66 organisations: “The Trump administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity.”

Trump warned that his review of further findings of the secretary of state remains ongoing, suggesting other bodies could face similar treatment. 

The Trump administration has had a strained relationship with another UN body, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), over the past 12 months, walking out of climate talks last April and then helping down the IMO’s Net-zero Framework agreement in October. Nevertheless, the US sought and won for reelection in late November to Category (a) at the IMO Council, the UN body’s executive organ responsible, under the assembly, for supervising the work of the organisation.