EU rebuffs UK calls to ship AstraZeneca Covid vaccines from Europe

Re:EU rebuffs UK calls to ship AstraZeneca Covid vaccines fr... by cmrdporcupine on Monday March 22, 2021 @09:28AM (#26540464)

In the end it's just more of the breakdown of the trans-atlantic cooperative model that kept western (and especially the Anglo/American countries) economies relatively integrated for the last few decades and which broke down significantly after the election of Trump.

This has been especially difficult for us in Canada where our dependant relationship with the US ("sleeping with an elephant") has screwed us not just on vaccine supply but on other geopolitical issues (China imprisoning our citizens as proxy conflict with the US, trade conflict over steel and aluminum and dairy, etc.).

If you traveled back 15-20 years and told people at the time that there would be a situation where Canada would be poor in vaccine supply while the US was drowning in it, people would be a bit shocked. During the Clinton/Chretien era this kind of lack of cooperation would be unheard of, continental integration was the agenda of the day.

Some of this is now alleviating with Biden at the helm, but it's still not a good situation. We just "borrowed" 1.5M doses of AstraZeneca from the US that they weren't using, but that's really a drop in the bucket.

So yeah, it's not just EU vs UK, it's a whole situation, the breakdown of the neo-liberal concensus. It's not clear what replaces it.

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Re:EU rebuffs UK calls to ship AstraZeneca Covid vaccines fr... by pseudo0 on Monday March 22, 2021 @11:34AM (#26542273)

Remember the softwood lumber dispute (billions of dollars and years of legal wrangling) or the flak Chretien caught from the US for keeping Canada out of Iraq? I think you're looking at the past with rose-tinted glasses.

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Re:EU rebuffs UK calls to ship AstraZeneca Covid vaccines fr... by cmrdporcupine on Monday March 22, 2021 @02:55PM (#26545137)

That is true, I do remember that. But a trade dispute is nothing compared to provoking a situation which causes imprisoned (and basically tortured) citizens and enacting export controls which prevent your northern neighbour and long time ally from purchasing life saving vaccines.

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Re:EU rebuffs UK calls to ship AstraZeneca Covid vaccines fr... by juanani on Monday March 22, 2021 @09:41AM (#26540635)

>China imprisoning our citizens as proxy conflict with the US

Was that retaliatory for Canada imprisoning a Chinese citizen in the name of US sanctions against Iran? I am curious which came first since I haven't followed it closely.(no justifying, just wondering why this is the example you brought up)

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Re:EU rebuffs UK calls to ship AstraZeneca Covid vaccines fr... by cmrdporcupine on Monday March 22, 2021 @09:43AM (#26540659)

Yes, retaliation for honoring our extradition treaty with the US, in a conflict initiated by the Trump admin.

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