MUCH of the global conversation in the past week has focused on the fraught issue of tariffs. Yet there is a risk that another gut-punch by the President of the United States is forgotten while his country’s foreign trading partners lick their wounds. The hammering of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) (Comment, 7 February) is having a significant impact. Last month’s intervention by a federal judge may have prevented President Trump’s dismantling USAID entirely, but a life-threatening wound has been inflicted.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Myanmar (News, 4 April). This was in the grip of humanitarian crisis well before last month’s earthquake. The latest figures suggest that at least 3400 people died, another 5000 were injured, and hundreds more are still missing as a result. An estimated 17 million people are affected: many have no access to basic shelter, let alone the clean water, food, and medical care that they need to survive. Unusually, the ruling junta has appealed for international help; the UN has, however, warned that humanitarian aid is being prevented from moving freely around the country to the point of greatest need, as a result of the continuing airstrikes. Last week, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said, in polite understatement, that “longstanding limitations imposed by the military on humanitarian operations and access” meant that many badly affected areas remained unreachable. It is common knowledge that the regime diverts foreign aid from the areas of the country over which it has no sway.

In the midst of the compounding crisis, USAID, which would normally be at the forefront of a disaster such as this, is missing in action, as Andrew Mitchell MP, who was Deputy Foreign Secretary under the last Conservative government, told the BBC last weekend. It was not just the money, he warned — the UK has historically provided more humanitarian funding for Myanmar — but the fact that the vacuum left by the US would too easily be filled by countries such as Russia and China. The diplomatic influence that the US has in the region will be greatly diminished. That is to the peril of us all.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has committed up to £25 million for vital humanitarian assistance. This includes £5 million of matched funding to donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal. It is to be hoped that the FCDO will keep this figure under review, and that the public will give generously. It is to be hoped, too, that the Government will continue to show leadership in bringing the world’s attention to the suffering in Myanmar. It is the expedient — as well as the right — thing to do.