[Blog] A call to the 192 state members of the UN (minus USA) about President Trump's policies

By Dr Michael Atchia

(Past Programme Director, United Nations)

Trump’s trade policies. This is a call to all 192 states of the planet to defend and preserve free trade and to pressurise the USA to end this trade/manufacture and visa war now.

Here is the proposed tool of action to counteract the destruction of global free trade through the new tariffs and restrictions, as well as unthought-out revenge on some states by President D. Trump since his arrival at the office of President of the USA:

That simple solution is for all states of the world (192 of us) to continue to import and export, free trade and the exchange of expertise and licences, as usual — minus the USA.

This isolation of the USA may hurt some countries such as neighbours Canada and Mexico. The 192 countries have, together, all the resources, manufacturing, trade systems, navigation and money exchange systems, and above all, the huge markets of China, India, Brazil, the African and the Arab states, the rest of Asia etc., to continue practically unaffected the present system of world trade and indeed to develop it!

This solution, if implemented, will surely — but unfortunately — hurt the USA, its businesses, industries, and its people.

States could meet, for example, at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and set up this exclusion of the USA from all import and export, from all world trade, which could be set up and become effective within 2 to 3 months — let’s say, tentatively, as from the 1st of July 2025.

But human civilisation cannot be indifferent and do nothing while this destruction of one of the pillars of our way of life and exchange (free trade) is happening.

Let us remind ourselves again as to what free trade is:

Natural resources: Each of the 193 states has a variety and quantity of natural resources which they use or export to countries who require them, such as crude oil and gas to Japan. Apart from fossil fuels and gas, minerals, agricultural and forest products — including electricity and freshwater, fish, seafood, cattle and sheep, etc.

Manufactured goods: Depending on the expertise in each country and its entrepreneurs, manufactured goods are exchanged on a wide scale between all countries — some countries specialising in sets of equipment and goods, others such as China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea manufacturing and exporting a huge variety of goods such as steel, paper, textiles & clothing, vehicles, food, pharmaceutical and medical products, etc.

China is at present the largest exporter in the world with over USD 3.1 trillion (20% of world trade), followed by the European Union (USD 2.3 trillion), and then the USA (USD 1.22 trillion). The USA is the third-largest trading nation for goods and services. Currently, the U.S. has trade relations with more than 200 countries, territories, and regional associations around the globe.

All states must now support and indeed put pressure on the USA to continue trading, shall we say, normally as one of the 193 states of the planet — not under this global market turmoil which Trump’s mostly unverified tariffs have plunged the world into. Or face, as from the 1st of July, the isolation of the USA!

PS: Animal war:

In a personal capacity, I will stand up and defend the penguins and seal populations of the two remote Antarctic outposts of Heard and McDonald Islands against Donald Duck’s new tariffs!

9th April 2025