U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed the U.S. trade representative(USTR) take action so that developing countries that achieved economic growth don't use their status to receive benefits from the World Trade Organization(WTO).

Trump gave the directive to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Friday, adding such behavior cannot continue to go unchecked.

Trump later tweeted the WTO is "broken" when the world's "richest" countries claim to be developing nations to avoid WTO rules and get special treatment. He said he directed the USTR to take action to stop countries "cheating" the system at the expense of the U.S. 

In the memo sent to Lighthizer, Trump said that two thirds of WTO member nations claim developing country status but this can't be upheld in many cases given their economic standing.

He took the examples of Brunei, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Macao, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates noting they are among the ten wealthiest countries in the world in terms of per capita gross domestic product.

He also mentioned South Korea, Mexico and Turkey who are members of the Group of 20 economies as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD).