NZ and Australia have low or no tariffs on many medical products but some APEC nations impose tariffs of more than 50 per cent. Across the region,the average tariff on vaccines is 6 per cent,syringes 20.7 per cent,masks 8.6 per cent,vaccine storage containers 30 per cent and soap 27 per cent.
Vangelis Vitalis,deputy secretary of New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade,said he hoped APEC would be able to say something “meaningful and substantial” to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
“What we hope is that ministers will say:‘It is really important that our populations get vaccinated,it is really important that our populations have access to the vaccine and access to the equipment that will deliver the vaccines’,” he said at a media briefing in Canberra.
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Mr Vitalis said NZ would also push for accelerated customs procedures to create an “express lane” for vaccines,which are held up for three to nine days in some APEC countries. Under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement,chilled food products must cross the border within six hours but there is no similar arrangement for vaccine movements.
Global calls to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines to make it easier for developing countries to manufacture their own vaccines is also likely to be on the APEC agenda. Humanitarian groups have been increasingly concerned about the rise of “vaccine nationalism” whereby richer nations keep supplies for themselves at the expense of poorer countries.
Separately,New Zealand will press for a “standstill” on new fossil fuel subsidies,which could be uncomfortable for Australia after the federal government this week announced a$2 billion fuel security plan to keep the country’s two remaining oil refineries producing petrol.