Canada-U.S. border officially closed; non-essential travel restricted

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Canada and the United States finally close agreement and decide to temporarily shut the Northern U.S.-Canada border to non-essential travel and traffic. The decision has been made in mutual agreement between the two countries and its leaders. The United States and Canada also share the world’s largest border. The closure is bound to adversely affect tourism.

However, trade and all essential travel between the two countries will be exempted from the ban.  The decision has been made due to the Covid-19 pandemic as the number of coronavirus cases continues to soar all across the globe.

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada is closing borders to foreigners except for Americans. Though the decision was later reviewed and both, Canada and the U.S were in talks to finalise a joint agreement on closing the border between the countries.

On Wednesday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump took to social media to officially announce that it has been finalised with mutual consent that the United States will be temporarily closing its Northern Border with Canada to non-essential traffic.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press statement that in mutual agreement with the U.S. and President Trump, both the countries have finally decided to ban all non-essential travel across its shared border temporarily. He mentioned that travellers will not be allowed to cross the U.S.-Canada border for any recreational or tourism purposes. Both countries have encouraged people to stay at home and not to visit either of the neighbouring countries unless absolutely necessary. He said the decision of closing the border and restricting travel is an extended collaborative and reciprocal measure of the cautious approach.

He further added that governments of both countries recognize that supply chains are preserved between Canada and the U.S. that ensure free-flow of food, fuel and medicines between the two countries and their people. Therefore, essential travel will be permitted and supply chains and trucking would not be affected by the new agreement.

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