Reopen the US-Mexico border. Interactive economy in the region

The reopening of the land border between Mexico and the United States — from November — to non-essential travel will boost the region’s economy, authorities, professionals and business leaders see.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that given the progress of vaccination on both sides of the border, the lockdown was already an unsustainable measure and had a huge social and economic cost. According to Ebrard, the main commercial impact was on the border cities of the United States.

Ignacio Martinez-Cortez, coordinator of the Analysis Laboratory of Trade, Economics and Business in Mexico, noted that after about 19 months of border restrictions, the impact is estimated at about $71,000 million.

The researcher from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) said the number of crossings per day is nearly one million and 2,600,000 on weekends, in terms of family visits and shopping tourism.

“There is a very important benefit to the border economists, and especially to the United States (because the Mexican economy has never closed), it will boost the local economies of these 44 provinces that border 3,000 kilometers from the common border.”

José Mario Sánchez Soledad, spokesperson for the President of the Confederation of Employers of the Republic of Mexico (Coparmex) in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, considered this a positive measure, but the authorities of the two countries must appoint sufficient staff and infrastructure to address the increase in cross-border flows, particularly in The light of the approaching Christmas shopping season.

“The need for a bi-national review at the highest level of essential logistics representing the traffic of millions of people and vehicles being created at the borders, we have been out of practice in this effort for about a year and a half and that is one of the big problems.”

Jorge Macías Jiménez, president of the National Chamber of Commerce of Tijuana (Canaco), estimated that this city had benefited from closing the borders, but that it was already necessary to reopen it.

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