Mexico celebrates November opening of U.S. border, the world’s busiest

Mexico City, Oct. 13 (BNA) Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday welcomed the United States’ decision to open their common border in November after more than 18 months of pandemic restrictions that cost billions of dollars in economic losses.

Lopez Obrador added that the exact date for reopening is still being worked out between the two countries, Reuters reported.

The world’s busiest land border, where nearly a million people crossed daily before the coronavirus pandemic, has been closed to non-essential travel since March 2020.

“The northern border has been opened, and we will be normal on our northern border,” Lopez Obrador said at his daily morning press conference.

And US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mallorcas said earlier that the US borders with Canada and Mexico would open in November to fully vaccinated travelers. Read more

The closure of the 1,954-mile (3,144 km) border has dealt a blow to businesses on both sides of the border. In Texas border counties alone, the loss of Mexican shoppers and visitors caused a loss of about $4.9 billion in gross domestic product in 2020, according to a report by the Baker Institute.

More than 950,000 people entered the United States from Mexico on foot or in cars on a typical day, according to 2019 US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the reopening of the border will coincide with a campaign to revitalize economic activities in the border region, as Mexico has made great efforts to bring vaccination rates in line with the United States.

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He said the bilateral high-level economic meetings to be held in November will focus on the border region. Further meetings will be held in the coming days to work out the details of the reopening.

Ebrard said Mexico has been pushing hard on Washington to reopen the border, including putting forward proposals during a visit by US Vice President Kamala Harris.

The United States “accepted many of the proposals that we made along the way to make this happen,” Ebrard said, without elaborating.

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