Cross-Border Trade Weathering COVID-19 Downturn
In response to the coronavirus outbreak, Canada and the U.S. agreed to temporarily restrict all non-essential travel across the border, but not all trade.
Alan Bersin is Global Fellow for the Mexico and Canada Institutes at the Wilson Center. He says maintaining trade right now is critical for both countries.
“How do we actually, within the requirements of public health, maintain the kinds of restraints that will be in effect at least partially for some time — until a vaccine is developed?” he said. “For the first time, I think we can say instead of being an area of conflict and division, the border may have pointed the way to the kind of cooperation, the kind of balanced approach that may well be an example for other countries to employ even beyond the border region.”
Travel restrictions have crippled tourism-dependent industries, but cross-border trade between the U.S. and Canada is weathering the COVID-19 pandemic. About $1.7 billion in goods cross the U.S.-Canada border every day.
Canada’s Border Services Agency reported last week that the volume of travelers coming through land ports from the U.S. dropped by 87% between March 30 and April 5 compared to the same period in 2019. The decline was even steeper at airports in Canada, which reported a 96% drop in travelers from the U.S. Truck traffic from the U.S. dropped by 29% in the same period.
By contrast, on April 5, commercial traffic was down 24% compared with April 7, 2019, which the agency characterized as "strong."
"Importantly, we have no indication of issues with supply chains for essential goods coming to Canada, including food and medical supplies," the agency said in a statement.
“What we’re seeing is cooperative border management in a way that reflects the work that took place between the Canadian and U.S. government, on the northern U.S. border, and between the Mexican and U.S. government on the southern border over the last 25 years,” Bersin said.
