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Sept. 19 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump said Canada would like to reopen the border hours after the United States, Canada and Mexico extended their non-essential travel ban to curb COVID-19 spread. Trump made the remarks while touting the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade outside the White House before departing on Marine One on Friday afternoon.
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"We're looking at the border with Canada," Trump said. "Canada would like it open, and you know we want to get back to normal business. We have the USMCA all done -- the new trade deal replacing NAFTA, which was probably the worst trade deal ever made by anybody. It was grossly incompetent. We have a great trade deal right now, and so we're going to be reopening the borders pretty soon."
On Friday morning, Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf tweeted about the extension of the travel ban.
"We continue to work with our Canadian and Mexican partners to slow the spread of #COVID19," Wolf tweeted. "Accordingly, we have agreed to extend the limitation of non-essential travel at our shared land ports of entry through October 21."
The restrictions went into effect March 21 and exclude individuals involved in cross-border trade, U.S. citizens returning home, emergency responders and military-related travel.
The United States has over 6.7 million cases of COVID-19 and over 198,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University global tracker. Canada has over 144,000 cases and over 9,200 deaths.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's spokesperson, Chantal Gagnon, pointed to public safety minister Bill Blair's comments Friday about continuing border restrictions, CTV News reported.
"We will continue to base our decisions on the best public health advice available to keep Canadians safe," Blair tweeted.
"People in Canada see what's happening in the United States, and they have significant concerns about the risks to Canadians because of the pandemic," Nik Nanos, chair of Nanos Research, told CTV News podcast Trend Line.
