Mubasher: One of US President Donald Trump’s senior economic advisers hinted at a case for “evicting China” from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

China had “misbehaved” as a WTO member state, while the organisation failed the US, chairman of Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett said in an interview with BBC.

Nevertheless, President Trump’s strategy on international trade is yielding progress, Hassett said.

Trump’s administration followed a hardline approach on the WTO, challenging the organisation’s ability to settle disputes between members over alleged violations to its rules.

The US in general wins the cases it brings before the WTO, yet this “takes five or six years and then the damage is done,” Hassett said, adding that the organisation needed to be better able to deal with member states which fail to obey the rules and willing to lose at the organisation because penalties are very low.

“We never really envisioned that a country would enter the WTO and then behave the way that China has,” he said, adding that “it's a new thing for the WTO to have a member that is misbehaving so much.”

Hassett argued the question whether this could be fixed through bilateral negotiations, overhauling the WTO, or even eliminating China from the organisation.

Removing China from the WTO was the final least preferred of three options listed by Hassett who hinted the move in the question whether the US should “pursue evicting China from the WTO?”

While the move is not possible, it was startling to be suggested by a senior figure in the US administration.