Pressure Builds on Biden to Open Canadian Border

Pressure Builds on Biden to Open Canadian Border

August 9, 2021 Jim Byers

The U.S. Travel Association and an American congressman are pressuring the United States to open the border to vaccinated Canadians.

“Today, Canada begins welcoming fully vaccinated Americans back across the land border,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said. “This wise decision will spur the kind of economic recovery for our northern neighbor that’s critically needed on this side of the border as well.

“Reopening the U.S. land border to fully vaccinated Canadians would mark a good starting point towards rebuilding our own travel economy, and the Biden administration should reciprocate this policy decision – given the high rate of vaccination across Canada – without further delay,” he said.

“Continuing to close the U.S. border to Canadians harms separated families & hurts opportunities for economic recovery,” U.S. Representative Brian Higgins of upstate New York wrote on his Twitter feed. “The time to act is long overdue. Where is the U.S. plan to reopen the border to Canada & @LetUsReunite?”

Higgins has been a vocal critic of the closed border for months.

“Canada is America’s largest international travel market source and accounted for 26 percent of all inbound traffic in 2019, worth $22 billion in annual export income, said Dow, from U.S. Travel. “Even if travel from Canada returns to just half of 2019 levels for the rest of 2021, the United States will reap nearly $5 billion – if U.S. policy permits.

“Emergence from this pandemic will continue to be a complex and evolving process. The best response from the White House would be to set rational policies regarding international travel to serve as a model for a world safely and responsibly reopening,” Dow said.

Canadians can legally fly to the U.S., but the land border is closed to most Canadians until at least August 21.