Search
Close this search box.

Amcham Finland business community is concerned about the European Commission’s new requirement on explicit export authorization for the shipment of COVID-19 vaccines and active substances out of the EU.

Amcham Finland urges the Finnish government to work towards amending the recently announced export authorization mechanism. We are concerned that this measure disrupts the highly integrated and carefully arranged supply chains used for manufacturing and distributing vaccines globally. Global supply chains and production networks are needed to solve the current health crisis. The complex logistics behind vaccine distribution cannot function if export restrictions delay shipments. It is vital that the EU does not restrict, hold back, or delay vaccines or the import of manufacturing supplies.

We call for such authorizations to be granted automatically. Such an approach would still achieve the European Union’s goal of transparency, and it will allow officials to understand where shipments of vaccines and inputs are directed without delay or spoilage.

Early in the pandemic, export restrictions placed on PPE, ventilators, and essential medicines (both between EU member-states and in other jurisdictions) caused significant complications for global supply chains and threatened public health. We must learn from challenges we faced in 2020 and walk a different path. We cannot risk triggering retaliatory restrictions from international partners on export of critical inputs, which could bring production to a halt and further damage global health and our economic recovery.

An economic recovery relies on global access to vaccinations, and Finland, as a country that does not manufacture vaccine, can be a positive voice in seeking to eliminate restrictions to vaccine access and their key production networks.

Industry is doing everything possible to ensure that vaccines are made available, and it is working with governments to ensure timely access to COVID-19 vaccines. We urge you to dialogue with industry and with your European colleagues to amend the export authorization mechanism to be automatic, and in doing so ensure that our citizens and our economy recover as fast as possible.