The Biden administration is making progress toward reopening borders. According to the White House, it is creating ‘working groups’ with other countries, including Canada, the European Union, Mexico and the United Kingdom to lift restrictions.
“While we are not reopening travel today, we hope that these expert working groups will help us use our collective expertise to chart a path forward, with a goal of reopening international travel with our key partners when it is determined that it is safe to do so,” a White House official said.
The news drew praise from the U.S. Travel Association.
“U.S. Travel and its membership believe a public-private task force can quickly develop a blueprint to reopen international inbound travel and jumpstart a sustained job and economic recovery,” said president and CEO of U.S. Travel Roger Dow. “With decreased infection rates in the U.S. combined with the administration’s goal of having a critical mass of Americans fully vaccinated by July 4th, there is a true near-term opportunity to safely begin to welcome back international visitors.”
Dow praised the administration for working to safely reopen.
“International travel can be safely restarted by applying a risk-based and science-driven approach, and our hope is that the working groups are able to put a reopening framework in place very quickly,” he said. “The travel industry commends the Biden administration for taking this critical and necessary step on the international front, and we look forward to working with the federal government in every way possible to advance this process.”