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Italy became the first country to impose an EU export ban on coronavirus vaccines on Thursday when it blocked a shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca injections to Australia.
A spokesman for Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt said The Telegraph the blocked shipment “was not included in our distribution plan for the next few weeks.”
“The AstraZeneca launch begins today at Murray Bridge South Australia. The first international shipment has arrived, taking us to the beginning of CSL’s domestic supplies. This is a shipment from a country. “
He added: “National production starts with one million deliveries per week from the end of March and is on the right track.”
Brussels introduced the export transparency regime during its supply shortage dispute with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company in late January. According to the regulations, EU manufacturers must apply to the national authorities of the country of production and the European Commission for permission to export vaccines outside the EU.
Italy blocked the export of the vaccines and the commission raised no objection, the Financial Times reported. Rome notified Brussels of its decision late last week.
Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, who took office in February, called for stricter export controls at an EU summit last month. He was described as “defender of the national interests of Italy”.
But former Brexit secretary David Davis told The Telegraph: “Frankly, it amounts to shameful behavior. It comes at the end of a period where it took them a long time to approve the vaccine, then some of its leaders questioned the value of the vaccine”. vaccine, and it seems likely that they wasted the vaccine as a result of that due to an absorption deficit.
“And now this. I fear the EU is putting the goodwill of the rest of the world at risk. It is shameful and sad behavior, really, because they are our friends and allies.”
David Jones, vice chairman of the Conservative MEPs’ European Research Group, said it looked like “pirate” behavior.
Italy has 1.5 million vaccines against AstraZeneca and has administered 322,800 doses. In total, it has distributed 4.75 million vaccines from all companies.
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