EU calls on America to push exports to tackle vax shortage

European Union called on the United States on Friday to start boosting its vaccine exports to contain the global COVID-19 crisis, and said that the US backing of patent waivers would provide only a long-term solution at best.

“We invite all those who engage in the debate of a waiver for (Intellectual Property) rights also to join us to commit to be willing to export a large share of what is being produced in that region,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In the wake of the US backing calls to waive patents on vaccine technology, French President Emmanuel Macron summarised the view from Europe when he said at an EU summit in Porto, “You can give the intellectual property to laboratories that do not know how to produce it. They won’t produce it tomorrow.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gave the idea endorsed by US President Joe Biden this week a guarded welcome, but he immediately added, “We believe it is insufficient. It should be more ambitious.”

While the US has kept a tight lid on exports of American-made vaccines so it can inoculate its own population first, the EU has become the world’s leading provider, allowing about as many doses to go outside the 27-nation bloc as are kept for its 446 million inhabitants.

Many EU nations, however, have demanded a stop to vaccine nationalism and export bans.

Macron said it was more important for Biden to work on exports.

“The Anglo-Saxons block many of these ingredients” needed to make vaccines, the French leader said.