Vaccines are now important to renew the Atlantic relationship. The ‘America firstThe Donald Trump administration has severely weakened relations between the United States and its European allies. This seemed good to Joe Biden His address at the Security Conference Munich in February to reaffirm US support for Article 5 of the NATO Charter: An attack on a NATO member is considered an attack on all.
That’s so good. But one talk remains that the shortage of corona vaccines in Europe is endangering European lives, of which Section 5 and the Alliance are worthwhile. The Biden government did not seek approval for Britain’s AstraZeneca vaccine despite receiving a 60 million dose.
Biden clearly wants to re-establish relations with Europe, so his government must address this vaccine imbalance and bail out Europeans. The fastest way to achieve this is through joint US-European vaccinations in Europe. Cross-border cooperation in production and distribution, even across continents, is a much better way to serve Europeans for diplomatic purposes than to sell vaccines (at a time when Europe is lagging far behind in its vaccine distribution, it is no better than the United States). Russia, which generally does not want to share, has acknowledged this and has agreed to produce its Sputnik V vaccine in Italy with similar plans in France, Germany and Spain.
In its efforts to divide and weaken the EU, the Kremlin was able to gain influence in key areas of public health through such agreements. This raises the question of why the US government has not done much to persuade US pharmaceutical companies to enter into joint production agreements with European companies.
MarshallHulp
Of course, Pfizer-Bioentech has a contract with Novartis to manufacture its vaccine in Marburg. The Johnson vaccine is made in Leiden, while the parent company Johnson & Johnson signed a deal with Sanobi in February to manufacture the Marcy-L toy in France. Moderna has now signed an agreement with the Lonsa Group to manufacture its vaccine in Switzerland. But all of these measures came too late, which gave Russia and China a better opportunity to act as saviors of European public health.
By promoting cooperation in production, the United States will increase its national security without spending an extra percentage on defense. Just as the United States strengthened relations with Europe with the help of Marshall after World War II, Europeans now need to promote collective vaccine production as needed. The Marshall Plan helped drive the Soviets out of Western Europe; Joint vaccine production in Europe will curb the malicious (and costly) influence that Russia and China are trying to exert.
Vaccines are only one part of the story. The Biden administration has already made steady progress in re-establishing US-European relations by ending the protracted and toxic conflict over air subsidies. In early March, Biden agreed with European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen to suspend all taxes on the grant dispute for four months.
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Also read this column: A lukewarm European welcome to Joe Biden
Steel charge
Not only is it of commercial importance, but the treaty represents a revitalizing Atlantic Alliance. The controversy over aviation production began almost twenty years ago, with the EU taxing about $ 4 billion on U.S. products and the U.S. tax on European goods $ 7.5 billion. “Eventually the trade war between the United States and the European Union will end, which has only created failures.” Tweeted French Minister of Finance and Economy Bruno Le Myre.
But air subsidies are not the only trade dispute separating Europe from the United States. The tax imposed by Trump on European steel and aluminum is in effect for national security reasons. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce recently called the steel and aluminum tax “effective,” an indication that the Biden administration will not soon withdraw all of Trump’s protectionist measures. There is a thorny issue over US sanctions against German and other EU companies that help build the Nortstream 2 pipeline that supplies Russian natural gas directly to Germany.
How can Europeans not doubt Biden’s promise that “America is back” if it refuses to oppose the steel security forces?
The implementation of the Biden steel tax is a victory for domestic politics over prudent foreign policy. But Biden also recognizes that the United States is a weak United States, alienating itself from its allies. By helping Europe produce vaccines within the EU, he will not only show that the United States is back, but also that the far-sighted United States is back from the Marshall Plan, and that Trump is not the ‘America first’ to be mocked.
