Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

October 20, 2020

US, Canada renew border closure, continuing travel shutdown to Maine

By Staff

Maine’s border with Canada, the largest international trading partner for the state and for the U.S., will remain closed to nonessential travel for at least another month. And the ban could continue longer.

Both countries announced Monday that they would continue their mutual restrictions on travel, initially imposed March 21 to slow the spread of COVID-19, until Nov. 21. The prohibition has been made in monthly periods, and this is the eighth consecutive measure.

Nonessential travel includes international visits that are recreational or considered tourism, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Shipping and trucking of food, fuel, medicines and other vital goods are not affected. Americans returning to the U.S. and Canadians going back into Canada also are allowed to cross.

A similar, reciprocal policy will continue at the U.S. border with Mexico, DHS said. But the department expressed optimism that restrictions to the north and to the south can be loosened.

“We are working closely with Mexico and Canada to identify safe criteria to ease the restrictions in the future and support our border communities,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Monday on Twitter.

However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week said his country will take a wait-and-see approach.

"We have committed to keeping Canadians safe and we keep extending the border closures because the United States is not in a place where we would feel comfortable reopening those borders," he said in a Canadian radio broadcast. "We see the cases in the United States and elsewhere around the world, and we need to continue to keep these border controls in place."

Over 8.12 million cases of COVID-19 and 219,000 deaths have been reported in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday. 

Nearly 388,000 cases have been reported in the past seven days, and many experts predict the numbers will only increase during the next several months.

Canada has recorded a total of 202,000 cases of COVID-19, and 9,800 deaths. The country’s population is roughly 35.9 million people, about 11% of the U.S. population.

The U.S.-Canada land border supports $1.7 billion in trade each day. In Maine, 830,000 Canadian travelers crossed the 611-mile border and spent over $290 million in Maine during 2017, according to the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service.

But travel has been decimated by the border shutdowns. For example, the number of people coming to Maine by car at the state’s 11 international land ports of entry fell 42% from February to March, according to federal transportation data. More recent data shows the decline has continued.

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF