Mexico Covid Czar Wants U.S. to Relax Travel Restrictions
Mexico Virus Czar Wants U.S. to Relax Covid-19 Testing Rules
(Bloomberg) -- Mexico wants the U.S. to relax its Covid-19 vaccination and testing requirements at the shared borders in order to improve commerce and transit.
Mexico’s Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, who is also the virus czar, said officials will discuss the topic during Thursday’s so-called Three Amigos summit in Washington with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joseph Biden.
“From a health point of view we consider it would be appropriate,” to loosen restrictions, Lopez-Gatell told Bloomberg News before a flight to Washington. The testing and vaccination rules’ “impact on the wellbeing of our people and economies may outweigh the benefits.”
The U.S. requires travelers be tested -- even if vaccinated -- to enter the country by air or land after loosening full land border closures for all leisure travel earlier this month. Starting in June, Mexico sent some of its limited vaccine supplies to border cities in an effort to convince the U.S. to reopen land crossings that had curbed tourism and sales in the border region.
Lopez-Gatell said that while no specific changes will likely be negotiated during the summit, opening the conversation between the two countries on the matter is important. The restrictions, including past border closures, require “a clearer understanding between our two nations because at this moment we have asymmetrical practices,” he said. Mexico does not currently require testing for entry.
Lopez-Gatell said that Mexico would not ask the U.S. for more vaccine donations, since his country will have enough vaccines to cover its adult population. He announced earlier this week that it would expand vaccination to include adolescents ages 15-17.
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