The World Trade Organization is warning of the 'deepest possible trouble' if the United States withdraws from the global trade body. Trade experts say the Trump administration is paralyzing this body by blocking the appointment of appeals judges. From Washington, Daniel Ryntjes reports.

'If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,' U.S. President Trump told Bloomberg recently in the Oval Office. The reply from the World Trade Organization: do so at your peril.

ALAN WOLFF, DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION "You withdraw from the WTO and everybody is totally free to discriminate against your trade or exclude it entirely. And that's a loss of a lot of jobs, and a lot of farm jobs as well as a lot of manufacturing jobs and a lot of service jobs."

Donald Trump is slowly disabling the WTO by blocking the appointment of appeals judges. Hope rests with a process of reform agreed to by members of the G20 to update the rules.

JACOB FUNK KIRKEGAARD, SENIOR FELLOW PETERSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS "Can it adapt I think that's the open question we have and it certainly cannot adapt without I think the risk of failure basically driving the reform progress forward, and I think that's what we're seeing now. Everybody knows the appellate body is going to cease to operate in about a year from now. And that, as we know, crisis focuses the minds."

The Trump administration has tried to bypass the normal trade rules on steel and aluminum tariffs arguing that it's a national security matter. This claim of immunity is being challenged by several major trading partners, while the WTO also considers a U.S. complaint about retaliatory measures by China, Canada, the European Union, and Mexico.

DANIEL RYNTJES WASHINGTON "The ability of the multilateral trading system to survive is now partially reliant on the ability of the United States to resolve its major trade battles within and outside the WTO. Daniel Ryntjes, CGTN, Washington."