The four deputy directors general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Yonov Frederick Agah (Nigeria), Karl Brauner (Germany), Alan Wolff (America) and Yi Xiaozhun (China) called on member countries to cooperate more on deliveries of vaccines against Covid-19, in a statement released Monday 1 February.
“The current challenge calls for increased international cooperation. [...] We call on members to work together to make vaccines available for all”, they said.
Although the mechanism for authorising exports of Covid-19 vaccines set up by the European Union on 29 January is not explicitly mentioned (see EUROPE 12647/2), Alan Wolff has expressed serious doubts about this mechanism to the Politico media, citing potentially unfortunate consequences.
In Japan, the minister in charge of the Covid-19 vaccination programme, Tarō Kōno, has accused the EU of delaying vaccination in his country. “Because of this, we have not been able to finalise our supply schedule”, he said on Tuesday 2 February. Tokyo has concluded contracts with Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. The Japanese minister called for international action to prevent “vaccine nationalism” affecting global health.
For the European Commission, it is only a matter of monitoring that contracts are honoured in accordance with contractual obligations, through transparency on vaccine deliveries. “We are aware of the concerns raised in several countries and we are going to do our utmost to ensure that the contracts signed are respected”, said the spokesperson for trade issues, Miriam García Ferrer.
On Tuesday, she added that two authorisations had already been issued by Member States in agreement with the Commission, for exports to Canada and the UK. “This proves that the system works and we are going to use it in limited cases”, she said. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)