WASHINGTON, 21 JAN

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing America from the World Health Organisation, the second time in less than five years that the US has ordered to withdraw from the world body.

It was among dozens of executive actions he signed after being sworn in on Monday for a second term, on issues ranging from immigration to foreign policy to climate change.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) came under intense criticism from Trump in 2020 for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which grew into a worldwide health crisis during the final year of his first term.

“That’s a big one,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House when an aid presented to him an executive order on this to be signed by him.

“We paid USD 500 million to World Health when I was here, and I terminated it. China, with 1.4 billion people, has 350 dependents... nobody knows what we have because so many people came in illegally. But let's say we have 325 (million people). They (China) had 1.4 billion people. They were paying USD39 million. We were paying USD500 million. It seemed a little unfair to me,” he said.

“That wasn't the reason, but I dropped out (of WHO). They offered me to come back for USD39 million. In theory, it should be less than that, but, when Biden came back, they came back for USD 500 million. He knew that you could have come back for USD39 million. They wanted us back so badly. So, we'll see what happens,” he said.

The order said Trump was sending a presidential letter to the United Nations secretary-general to formally notify him of the US plan to withdraw.

“The United States noticed its withdrawal from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2020 due to the organisation’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states,” said the executive order.

“In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments. China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 per cent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 per cent less to the WHO,” it said adding that the United States intends to withdraw from the WHO.

The global health body stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in funding following Trump's order.

This is Trump’s second attempt to withdraw the US from the WHO.

In July 2020, he sent a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus notifying him of the US intention to withdraw within a year. Trump accused the WHO at the time of helping China mislead the world about the spread of Covid-19.

But Trump was defeated in that year’s election, and when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he reversed Trump’s decision.

This time, Trump will still be in office when the withdrawal would go into effect.

The Executive Order also calls for establishing directorates and coordinating mechanisms within the National Security Council apparatus as he deems necessary and appropriate to safeguard public health and fortify biosecurity.