OTTAWA -- After concerns raised earlier this week, the federal government says it has received assurances from the European Union that Canada鈥檚 coming vaccine shipments will not be held back, despite the EU鈥檚 new export controls.

Both Procurement Minister Anita Anand and Export Promotion and International Trade Minister Mary Ng said Friday that they鈥檝e received confirmation that the doses Canada is due, will be delivered.

According to a statement issued by Ng鈥檚 office, she spoke this week with the European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis and was told the EU鈥檚 latest vaccine restrictions 鈥渁re not meant to target Canada.鈥�

As a spokesperson for the European Commission stated earlier this week, the new export controls are aimed at making sure Europe has it鈥檚 鈥渄ue share鈥� of vaccines.

Vaccine exports from the EU to Canada鈥攚hich currently include shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the two major providers鈥攁re subject to authorization requests and the European Commission.

Anand said Friday that the export permits have been secured for next week鈥檚 shipments, and Pfizer has already received the necessary approvals for the shipments taking place the following week.

While the next shipment of Moderna doses is being delayed by a few days, after speaking with company officials, Aanand told reporters that she鈥檚 been reassured that it is due to a quality assurance backlog and not as a result of the move to keep more doses within Europe.

Canada is entirely reliant on COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by international pharmaceutical companies as there isn鈥檛 adequate domestic production capacity in this country currently.

Asked what Canada is doing to shore-up future shipments that still remain uncertain, Anand said as the Canadian government has done with AstraZeneca, they are looking to 鈥渄iversify鈥� the locations from which these vaccine shipments are coming from, 鈥渢o make sure that we are going to continually receive vaccines into Canada from approved suppliers.鈥�

鈥淕iven the profound period of global demand for vaccine, there will continue to be bumps along the way鈥� As we have seen these bumps are temporary, and have not knocked us off course,鈥� said the procurement minister, noting that Canada's shipments of vaccines over the course of the next three weeks are expected to match the total number of doses received over the course of the past three months combined.

鈥淭hat is six million more doses coming to Canada, between now and April 18,鈥� Anand said.