Inconsistencies of India-US health cooperation

At a time when India is being hit most severely by the Covid-19 pandemic, the United States – its strategic partner – under President Joe Biden seems to have had trouble remembering India’s goodwill toward the American public during the presidency of Donald Trump. 

India has become the world’s new pandemic hotspot. The South Asian country, with the world’s largest vaccine-making capacity, has no choice but to stop major exports of vaccines in order to meet the domestic demand. 

It is against this backdrop that the Indian government and vaccine makers have asked the US repeatedly to lift the restrictions on its own exports of vaccine raw materials, which would greatly expedite India’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities in order to enhance its global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

Though the US government has just decided to lift the export ban on the essential raw materials, it is important to look into the fact that it was initially unwilling to do so. In fact, it can be assumed that due to amounting pressure domestically, and the lead taken by European countries, the US had no choice but to give in.

The US had continuously restricted the export of these vaccine ingredients to India in favor of its domestic manufacturers. Ironically, it is an Indian company that is supplying the US with a crucial and relatively rare ingredient needed for manufacturing its mRNA vaccines.