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Plans to give EU member states power to block some exports “threaten third countries with retaliation, which could disrupt key supply chains very quickly,” ICC Secretary General John Denton said Thursday. , in a letter to AFP.
“It just came to our knowledge then <...> it would have a negative impact on the supply of vaccines around the world, including all EU Member States, “he added.
The letter was also sent to Stela Kiriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, and Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission, charged with developing a vaccine export licensing system.
The initiative was launched this week after the European Commission teamed up with the English and Swedish pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca over a huge shortage of promised doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said its priority is to supply the UK, which signed the contract three months before the EU did.
However, the EC argues that its contract with AstraZeneca does not contain a “first come first serve” clause and that the company’s two UK plants are included in four supply bases to fulfill the contract with the EU.
The ICC said it believed the idea of an EU export licensing scheme was promoted out of “good intentions”, but misguided, given that “vaccine supply chains are largely global in nature.”
The organization released a study that says vaccine shortages in low- and middle-income countries could cost the global economy trillions of dollars, half of which would be covered by advanced economies.
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