By Ammu Kannampilly and Charlotte Van Campenhout
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Some U.S.-funded contraceptives worth nearly $4 million that are intended for poor nations but stuck in a Belgian warehouse since President Donald Trump froze foreign aid in January risk becoming unusable by the middle of next year, a reproductive rights group said on Thursday.
Diplomatic talks to try to resolve a stalemate between Belgium and the United States on the issue are on hold because of the Washington government shutdown, a Flemish government spokesperson said.
Reuters in July quoted sources as saying the supplies valued at $9.7 million in total would be burned after Washington rejected offers from the United Nations and family planning organisations to buy or ship them to poorer nations. A U.S. State Department spokesperson later confirmed a decision had been taken to destroy them.
No one from the U.S. government was immediately available to comment on Thursday.
Belgian regulations ban the destruction of usable medical supplies without special approval and a fee, so they remain in a warehouse in Geel in the province of Antwerp.
According to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the supplies are mostly intended for Tanzania, which has a minimum shelf life requirement for medical imports.
Expiry dates on around a million vials of injectables and over 400,000 implants, together valued at $3.97 million, mean they will no longer comply with Tanzanian import standards by the end of this year and the middle of next year, Marcel Van Valen, Head of Supply Chain at IPPF, told Reuters.
The Tanzanian government did not immediately reply to questions asking if it would grant an exemption.
The supplies expire between April 2027 and September 2031, according to an internal document listing the warehouse stocks and verified by three sources.
In Tanzania “any device with (a) shelf life of more than 24 months whose remaining shelf life is less than 60%” will not be permitted for import, according to government regulations.
All the supplies mentioned in the internal document have a shelf life of over 24 months.
Beth Schlachter, MSI Reproductive Choices’ Senior Director of U.S. External Relations, told Reuters the U.S. refusal to redistribute the supplies would have a severe impact.
“The consequences of this callous act will be far-reaching, higher rates of unsafe abortion, more girls dropping out of school and more women dying. It is callous, costly and cruel.”
(Reporting by Ammu Kannampilly, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Barbara Lewis)
