Italy Blocks Large Vaccine Export Shipment to Australia
Italy blocked a shipment of 250,700 AstraZeneca vaccine doses headed for Australia, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a March 4 news release. Italy cited three reasons for the imposition of the export controls: Australia is considered “non-vulnerable,” there is an ongoing shortage of vaccines in the EU and Italy with delays of shipments between AstraZeneca and the EU and Italy and the number of doses in the shipment was comparable to the quantity of doses supplied to Italy so far. The move marks the first time an EU member state has used the EU's new vaccine export controls, which passed Jan. 29. Before Italy's use of the controls, experts had said that the controls were meant only to send a message to AstraZeneca, which was making large commitments with many non-EU nations, including the U.K. and Australia, leaving it in danger of falling short of its EU commitments (see 2103010022).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
A lawyer involved in vaccine export control compliance, Stefan Tsakanakis of Steptoe & Johnson, said the controls were likely implemented because AstraZeneca announced it could only supply about 40 million doses by the end of March, as opposed to the 80 million it promised in its Advance Purchase Agreement with the EU by the end of the first quarter. Tsakanakis also pointed out how Italy's decision was met with mixed reviews across Europe. “Whether such exports will be blocked certainly depends a lot on the competent Member State authority,” he said. “For example, France has supported Italy blocking the shipment to Australia (and stated that they could do the same) whereas the German Minister of Health Jens Spahn suggested that refusing such exports could be risky from a long-term perspective.” Australia's low infection rate also contributed to the decision to block the vaccine shipments, Tsakanakis said.