G-7 vows virus co-ordination

Nations to share information, medical equipment and economic support

The United States and its top economic allies pledged yesterday to more closely share real-time information about the coronavirus and the availability of medical equipment and to support jobs, global trade and investment.

They also vowed to bolster science, research and technology and work to restore public confidence about the pandemic threatening the world’s economy.

US President Donald Trump and other members of the Group of Seven, which includes Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and France, held a teleconference to co-ordinate responses to the coronavirus and reduce US-European tension over Trump’s travel ban and reports about White House talks with a German company developing a vaccine.

“We are mobilising the full range of instruments, including monetary and fiscal measures, as well as targeted actions, to support immediately and as much as necessary the workers, companies and sectors most affected,” they said in a statement.

Trump has had an on-again, offagain relationship with top US allies, but his top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said there was a high degree of co-operation on display during the teleconference.

“They’re not always so agreeable, but they are today,” Kudlow told reporters at the White House. “It’s a wonder to see.”

But the leaders also addressed a controversy involving German company CureVac that rattled top German officials, including Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, who said “Germany is not for sale”.

On Monday, Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper, citing unidentified German government sources, reported that the former head of CureVac joined Trump’s March meeting with pharmaceutical managers. The report said Trump apparently offered the German firm a large amount of funding to secure its work for the US.

The company, which is based in Tubingen, Germany, and has a site in Boston, yesterday denied reports the Trump Administration was angling to acquire it.

Shortly after the teleconference, the European Union announced it was providing € 80 million ($147.89m) of financial support to CureVac to scale up development and production of a vaccine against the coronavirus.

“We are determined to provide CureVac with the financing it needs to quickly scale up development and production of a vaccine against the coronavirus,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “I am proud that we have leading companies like CureVac in the EU.

“Their home is here. But their vaccines will benefit everyone, in Europe and beyond.”

French President Emmanuel Macron considers that many unilateral decisions taken by countries across the globe are counter-productive in fighting the outbreak.

He has sought to mediate tensions that flared last week when Trump imposed a travel ban on European countries without consulting them.