Some American factories are export restricted, Pfizer has set up production in the US which is cleared for export as they didn’t took any government funding for those production lines.
Israel is getting most of their doses from US factories not EU ones.
Agreed. But given the lack of production this was an easier deal to make for Israel than for say all of the EU, no matter what the price, those vaccines are not available in that quantity.
So apparently the main EU plant for production of the vaccine is in Puurs, Belgium.
The second one (already producing today) is in Marburg, Germany. Source in German:
> "In the first half of 2021, 250 million doses of the vaccine are to be produced..."
No, they are currently just requiring export licenses "to get an overview". Up to now, all export requests have been granted and there are large parts of the world where no license is required:
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/weltwirtschaft/eu-impfs...
Overall I would call it useless EU blustering, there won't be an export ban, no matter what happens. It is just the minimum required measure to save face.
That is not quite true, it doesn't only target the UK. The export requirements apply to basically everyone except third-world countries through Covax and Switzerland/Norway/Ukraine/Israel due to existing treaties.
But it is true that the AstraZeneca/UK-situation was the trigger event that lead to the public noticing that something was amiss.
There is/was a contract dispute between the EU and AstraZeneca regarding supply of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The EU wanted AstraZeneca to supply additional vaccine from it's UK-based factories, which are already contracted to supply the UK.
The export registration requirements (not an export ban) are, at least in part, in response to this dispute.
Well, the contract with the EU included the UK factory(ies) as a (potential?) supplier to the EU.
UK signed the contracts slightly earlier and jump-started the programme by issuing an emergency approval a few weeks earlier than the regular approval by the EMA.
And above all, it seems despite all efforts of coordination and treaties (COVAX), almost all players (except Norway) are playing the auction game and hoarding.
This is a global pandemic and these "selfish" actions will have global effects :(
There was misunderstanding and arrogance from EU bureaucrats about how business works. They have already tracked back ( Von Der Leyen in EU parliament, Merkel in media ).
Israel is getting most of their doses from US factories not EU ones.