Last checked at 
* Johnson denies Britain has banned exports
* EU says Britain uses AstraZeneca contract to block
shipments
* Relations sour post-Brexit
(Adds spokesman, Lewis comments)
By Gabriela Baczynska, Philip Blenkinsop and Elizabeth Piper
BRUSSELS/LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - Britain denied an
accusation on Wedneday by the European Union that it had banned
exports of COVID-19 vaccines, and summoned an EU diplomat to
complain.
Britain, which quit the EU last year, has provided vaccine
doses to more than a third of its population, far outpacing the
27 remaining EU members.
They, in turn, have been casting blame on drug companies for
failing to meet delivery targets, including AstraZeneca, which
makes COVID-19 vaccines both in Britain and the EU and has
declined to divert British doses to the bloc to meet a shortfall
there.
The EU says it has allowed millions of doses of Pfizer
vaccines, which Britain does not make, to be exported there. On
Tuesday, European Council President Charles Michel said Britain,
like the United States, had "outright" banned exports of
vaccines produced on its territory.
London says it has no such ban, and credits the success of
its vaccine programme to strong negotiations with drug companies
last year and early investment in supply chains. EU officials
say London has effectively prevented exports of AstraZeneca
vaccines by invoking a clause in its contract that
requires the company to fulfil Britain's order first.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament he had
to "correct" Michel's suggestion. His government had "not
blocked the export of any single COVID-19 vaccine or vaccine
components", he said.
The foreign office said it had summoned EU charge d'affaires
Nicole Mannion "to discuss the issue of incorrect assertions in
recent EU communications".
Asked whether Britain was using its AstraZeneca contract to
effectively block exports, a spokesman for Johnson said: "The
movement of vaccines and their components into and out of the UK
is driven by contractual obligations that vaccine suppliers have
to their customers."
After initially saying Britain had imposed an "outright"
export ban, Michel later said there were "different ways of
imposing bans or restrictions on vaccines".
An EU official said the bloc had allowed exports of 8
million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Britain since Jan. 30, and
many more earlier. Manfred Weber, head of the largest political
group in the European Parliament, told Britain's foreign
secretary to "stop lecturing and to show Britain's export data."
The vaccine dispute comes at a time when the bloc and its
former member are also quarrelling over Brexit. An EU diplomat
said such verbal jousting was "the new normal".
"With more economic divergence and more competition ahead,
pressure on our Brexit agreements will only grow," the diplomat
said.
Last week, Britain unilaterally extended a grace period on
checks of food arriving in Northern Ireland from other parts of
the United Kingdom, required under its Brexit deal. The move is
expected to prompt a legal challenge from Brussels this week,
two Brussels diplomatic sources said.
"This was another provocation. It's not the first, and
nobody expects it to be the last. The EU will keep calm and
react firmly," said a second senior EU diplomat.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, Gabriela Baczynska, Francesco
Guarascio, and Sarah Young and Elizabeth Piper in London;
Editing by Alex Richardson and Hugh Lawson)
