The head of the Windsor-Essex Chamber of Commerce says Tuesday night's announcement that the US is allowing fully vaccinated foreign nationals entry to the country in early November is one they've been waiting for hear for quite a while.
Chamber President and CEO Rakesh Naidu says this decision is clearly something people in both Windsor and Detroit will benefit from.
"It's families that have been separated that'll benefit, businesses on both sides for the last almost two years have suffered a significant amount of reduction in business and new opportunities because of the border restrictions."
Naidu says this will be a big boost for local business come next month.
"A lot of our businesses rely on the border, and just crossing the border on a daily basis," he continued. "There are many businesses on both sides that before the pandemic would have their personnel cross the border multiple times to carry out business, it was just routine business."
He says the things personnel would do on those visits aren't the kind of things that can be done virtually, so for those businesses this is a big relief.
Naidu says businesses have dealt with several challenges.
"On the manufacturing side there are so many processes that are dependent on human engagement and human interaction and that just is not possible by doing it virtually. In the past some of our businesses have been forced to do some of these things on the US side," he said.
Naidu thanked all of the elected officials on this side of the border who have been working hard on the file for months now.
The Biden administration will be announcing the new rules on Wednesday around the Canada-U.S. border reopening to fully vaccinated travellers in November.
- with files from Rob Hindi