Donald Trump threatens to leave WTO

Washington: The US Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to pull the US out of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if his proposal on penalising the US companies for moving overseas is blocked.

"Meet the Press" that he, if elected President, would impose a tax on US companies that shift production overseas then sell the products back to the US, Xinhua news agency qouted Trump as saying.

"If they are going to fire all their people, move their plant to Mexico, build air conditioners and think they are going to sell those air conditioners to the US, there is going to be a tax," Trump told NBC news.

The tax rate could be 15 per cent, 25 per cent or 35 per cent, and could be different for different companies, he added.

When told that such tax would not get through the WTO, Trump said he would then renegotiate "or we are going to pull out."

"These trade deals are a disaster, Chuck. WTO is a disaster," Trump said.

Trump reiterated his support to Britain for its exit from the Europe Union, which he said he foresaw before it happened.

Asked about his previous remarks that the US protection of other Nato members should be conditional on their financial contribution, Trump firmly stood by his position.

"We have Nato and we have many countries that are not paying for what they are supposed to be paying, which is already too little but they are not paying anyway," he noted.

The countries Trump mentioned which have to pay for the US protection included Japan, Germany, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.