China offers $1 billion loans to Latin America and the Caribbean for access to its Covid-19 vaccine

By Rek Hanibal Published on March 09, 2021

China will give a $1 billion loan to Latin American and Caribbean countries for them to gain access to its COVID-19 vaccine, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a virtual meeting with regional nations. Wang told his Latin American counterparts that a vaccine developed by China would be universally accessible, according to a statement released by Mexico's Foreign Ministry. Latin America is currently the region hardest-hit by the virus, with Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Chile among the world’s 10 worst-hit nations. During a daily briefing on Thursday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador thanked China after the loan announcement.

Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay also participated, the ministry added.” Chinese foreign minister stressed that the vaccine developed in his country will be a public good of universal access and that his country will provide a $1 billion loan to support the access of the nations of the region," it said. It gave no details of when such a vaccine might be available or distributed. The virtual meeting on Wednesday was led by Mexico's Foreign Affairs Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, and Wang Yi. Their counterparts, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Yi said in his daily briefing that during the pandemic, "China and Latin American and Caribbean countries, though oceans apart, have stood together against this common foe and conducted practical and effective cooperation to the benefit of all our people."

He said the meeting would "consolidate consensus between the two sides on jointly fighting the pandemic, cement political mutual trust, uphold multilateralism" and build a community with a shared future for the regions. Latin America became the epicenter of the global pandemic in late May. Data last week found that Latin America and the Caribbean had suffered more coronavirus deaths than the US and Canada -- though the latter had still reported more deaths per capita. Brazil has the second-highest number of cases globally, after the US, with more than 2.2 million people infected, Chinese biotech company Sinovac has begun a Phase 3 vaccine trial in the country, alongside another Phase 3 trial by Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Peru, Chile, and Mexico are also in the top ten countries for confirmed cases, while the virus is also spreading in Venezuela, where concerns have been raised over the country's crippled healthcare system. Governmental responses to the virus have differed radically across Latin America, however, the region's informal workforce and high levels of inequality are among the factors driving the widening outbreak. Coronavirus also has deepened the rift between the US and China, with the Trump administration repeatedly lashing out at China over its early response to the virus.

Rek Hanibal

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