A Day on the Border

The U.S. opened its borders today after a long wait for vaccinated travelers from dozens of countries. The opening included the U.S. land borders long shut for non-essential travel. Wait times are expected, which is no wonder when keeping in mind the amount of goods and people the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders used to handle pre-pandemic.

While the U.S.-Canada border is the one where more freight traffic occurs, more people and cars pass the U.S.-Mexico border.

Around 515,000 people and more than 200,000 cars crossed the border with Mexico on average every day before the pandemic hit, compared with around 147,000 people and around 73,000 cars in and out of Canada. While Canada is ahead with more than 23,000 truck and rail containers which crossed the border every day in 2019, the goods that were passing either border were valued approximately the same at $1.7 billion each.