On Monday, the US decided to reopen its land borders. Canadian business leaders have had a mixed reaction to the news. Some are excited that people will be allowed to cross the border again, but they also expressed concern over the tape.
The Business Council of Canada and The Canadian
Chamber opine that the Canadian requirement for returning travelers will need
to furnish a recent and negative molecular test is something like an
unnecessary obstacle to resuming business travel and tourism. They think that only
proof of vaccination should be required, and the test requirement should not be
needed.
They even said that Canadian business owners
who want to visit an American destination quickly find the test requirements to
be cumbersome. It is also quite expensive for families that want a reunion with
their loved ones or crave a quick vacation to the US.
Perrin Beaty, Chamber President, said, "If
we believe, as we should, that being fully vaccinated is the best way of
minimizing risk, we should be trusting the vaccination systems. We should be
monitoring what's taking place in terms of outbreaks in the two countries."
Goldy Hyder, the President of Business School
in Canada, said, "It's a competitive disadvantage to Canada and North
America to have rules that are inconsistent with where most of the world is
moving to."
Though the US doesn't want travelers from
Canada to provide a negative COVID-19 test, the Canadian government wants it
for citizens and permanent residents if they want to enter Canada.
Meredith Lilly, the Simon Reisman Chair in
trade policy at Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International
Affairs, stated that it would take some time before the impact of different
lockdowns and border closures on key aspects of international trade (labor
mobility) becomes visible.
Lilly said, "We have all just been
subjected to the world's largest experiment in digitalization. Many of us have
been forced to learn how to operate in the digital environment and not travel
to do work that once required us to be in person. I don't know that we yet
fully understand the consequences of … whether that is going to impact the
liberalization of labor mobility, where people were mega-commuting, and where
we saw labor mobility as kind of a big, important part of 21st-century
globalized trade."
Lilly also mentioned the aftermath of the
horrific 9/11 attacks and anti-terrorism measures, and new border security that
followed them could be instructive in the next few years. She said that day
trips between the two nations reduced considerably at that time due to "the
unfriendly border phenomenon in which travelers opt to forgo trips out of
reluctance to face heightened scrutiny."
She also said that the expense and the
inconvenience of getting a PCR test could be discouraging. It might negatively
impact tourism and lead to a decline in spontaneous and short trips. She said
small businesses might not be able to absorb the costs of tests as large
companies can.
To know the details of border reopening, click here.
Also, read how a New York border town is
welcoming Canadians again!
by Shruti , BNS Business News
Source:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/business-greets-canada-u-s-border-opening-as-glass-half-full-due-to-testing-rule-1.5655033