Let me start by saying that I am thankful that the European Union took the first step in opening up borders to American tourists this summer. But the lack of reciprocity in allowing Europeans to travel to the United States is indefensible and absurd at this point. My answer would be to close European borders to Americans until reciprocity is established. Enough is enough.
Reciprocity Is Respect: It’s Time To Lock Americans Out Of Europe
Oh, I don’t actually want European borders closed to American travelers. I also think that with minimal risk, American travelers have breathed life into many depressed economies in areas that are highly reliant upon tourism. I’ve seen it first-hand over the last five weeks in Europe.
But perhaps blocking Americans is the only way that Europe can push the White House to loosen the unscientific, illogical travel ban that allows travelers from high-risk nations to visit the USA while blocking citizens from Great Britain and the European Union.
> Read More: Europeans Grow Impatient With United States Over Travel Restriction
The White House is now hinting that it will lift the travel ban by requiring all foreign visitors to be vaccinated. Fine. But Reuters reports this will require a “new system” before travel can resume and will involve a “phased approach” to travel. Further, a White House official noted “the United States will maintain existing travel restrictions at this point” because infections “appear likely to continue to increase in the weeks ahead.”
That open-ended restriction is unacceptable. The delta variant is now the dominant variant in the USA. It’s already present! The EU, as a bloc, has now outpaced the United States in terms of vaccinations.
Whatever your view on whether foreigner visitors should be allowed in the United States, the current approach is totally broken. Beyond separating loved ones, preventing workers from returning to the USA, and harming international business, the odd restrictions punish nations like Germany, France, and the UK that have made significant progress in the battle against COVID-19 while rewarding countries outside of Western Europe where the virus represents a much more serious threat.
As a general principle, most border closures and reciprocity measures, like ex-Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s absurd visa regime to punish Americans for making it so hard for Brazilians to travel to the USA, are counterproductive. Indeed, they represent cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
Even so, Europe cannot allow this disrespect to continue. I’m absolutely disgusted by it.
CONCLUSION
Airline lobbyists work such wonders when it comes to insulating airlines from consumer-friendly measures yet airlines and other travel industries have failed to convince regulators to curb these restrictions. With pressure from the private sector ineffective, it is time for Europe to say to America, “Put up…or stay home.”
Euros can simply fly to Mexico and walk in no Covid test necessary. Boom. Problem solved. This administration is a joke.
Except, like most everyone else who tried to, they’d be arrested if they did.
That’s funny Aaron.
The land border from Mexico to the US is currently closed to foreigners. They can only fly in, after their 14 days and a COVID test.
Tell that to the tens of thousands of ‘”foreigners” who manage to enter the USA every day without visas or covid tests. A vanload of them wrecked just yesterday – killing a dozen or so. What you’re saying is a joke, just like the administration who currently runs the US.
Yes stogie, and they were arrested before they were buried…..
Agreed. I’m a dual U.S.-EU citizen — and my EU country benefits from U.S. tourists — but this is insane. What would the media be saying if Trump allowed Russians — low vaccination rate — to travel to the United States and not Europeans — high vaccination rate — who are our closet friends and allies? The CDC — located in the developing country with no health care system and low vaccine uptake that is Atlanta, Georgia — thinks it’s dangerous for Americans to travel to Portugal and Spain? Really?
Let’s punish American elites with plans to enjoy Paris and Venice this August and September — these rich New Yorkers and DCers will cry, whine, and demand action from Biden. The EU should give Biden one week to fix this — and, if he doesn’t, shut the borders.
The Dems love the elites. They ARE the elites. Meanwhile, some still believe they are the part of the “little guy”.
Amazing the self-delusion, isn’t it?
The unwashed masses like you and me need to suffer in silence.
PS I loathe most Republicans too, but for different reasons…so don’t counter with “but the Republicans.” Many of them also love pandering to the wealthy/elites, just like the Democrats.
Great idea! (Not). And let severely depressed, tourism-hungry economies from Greece to Portugal rejoice!! Then explain about “respect” to owners of small cafes and guesthouses that could not survive and had to shut down….
You can f off with this take. Thanks. Yes, sleepy Joe’s plan is utter crap and we need to open up to EU ASAP, but to suggest that EU needs to close up again out of spite? Actually f off with this take. Thanks.
It’s called reciprocity. Even before the EU lifted its ban on Americans, there were about 10x as many loopholes — including for romantic partners — in the EU compared to the U.S. Sorry my comment triggered you, but unless rich Americans have their Paris plans crushed, nothing will change. Biden is being absurd about this.
I’m in shock you would push this Republican talking point. We will open up to Europe as soon as it’s safe to do so. Joe Biden understands the science. Joe Biden follows the science. Thank goodness we have a President who understands we are still in the early innings of the pandemic and that the European travel ban must stay in place until the threat from these new variants is eliminated. Europe is free to do whatever they want with their borders, but it’s appalling that Europeans are insisting we risk the health and safety of the American population for tourism and other non-essential travel.
And it’s safe to open to Russia and Turkey?
Turkey and Russia do not fall under the Visa Waiver Program. So i would assume travel from these countries is easier to curtail, no visa no travel?
What about those who already have visas?
61K visitors from Russia entered the US in 2020, 47K came from Turley, total just north of 100K, that is about 300 per day.
In other words, irrelevant.
There’s no science in letting people from Mexico, Turkey, Dom. Rep, … in but no Europeans.
Yep.
But…but…but….
FOLLOW THE “SCIENCE!”
Right Dems? Hello?
🙂
Is this a serious response? This must be sarcasm. Joe Biden barely understands the alphabet at this point let alone “science”. And zero Covid, as you seem to imply, is a fantasy. You should go live a little. Much of the country is doing it.
Both Europe and the US should open immediately. Feel free to go full hermit if you need to. Egads.
I got hairy legs that turn, that, that, that turn blonde in the sun. The kids used to come up and reach in the pool and rub my leg down so it was straight and watch the hair come, come back up again. So I learned about roaches, I learned about kids jumping on my lap, and I love kids jumping on my lap…
Hahaha!
Says someone with dual citizenship . . .
He doesn’t have dual citizenship.
He’s said before that he has two passports. Probably US and German.
Exactly. Use the rest of us as political pundits while he crosses borders without restrictions.
Nope, not a dual citizen (unfortunately)
I think Ryan’s point is that Matt wouldn’t be subject to these restrictions he is proposing, a fact not mentioned any where in the article.
The problem with this take is that the administration really doesn’t care about opening up to Europe one way or another, and most Americans (except for travel types) don’t really care either, assuming they even know there is a ban. So if the EU closed to Americans again, not enough people would really care enough for anything to happen.
You nailed it. There’s no political motivation. Most Americans have no real concept of the ban to begin with.
Literally as long as you can fly across the Atlantic whenever you want – and did during the pandemic shutdown and did this summer – you care little about the rest of us who don’t enjoy all the special privileges you seem to feel entitled to. It amazes me how entitled you feel, yet think the rest of us be political pawns.
The US needs to drop this insane policy immediately.
Perhaps diverging but if you are Chinese, suggesting foreign countries should block off access to citizens of your country is a subversion crime with very severe consequences. Breach of national security!
Chinese should be allowed back into the USA as well. Vaccinated Americans should be allowed back into much of Asia where they are currently blocked. Don’t get me started on Australia…
Everything in life isn’t reciprocal. I could have understood Europe waiting to open until the USA agreed to allow Europeans in, but they didn’t. Europe unilaterally choose to open. Blocking Americans now would benefit zero people living in Europe. It wouldn’t speed up the USA’s opening plans. But it would mean fewer tourist Dollars for some/many Europeans working in tourism.
I hope for my sake borders remain open, and I wish dearly that my friends in Europe could come here as well. An ego based move to make a statement; however, benefits nobody.
It’s so insulting to suggest Europe will just collapse without American tourist dollars.
I didn’t mean to suggest that Europe would collapse. They certainly would not. My point was if Europe were to renege on their opening to US tourists, some European businesses would see a decrease in travel and tourism revenue, with no upside whatsoever to any European business or resident.
Should African countries block Americans and Europeans also because respect isn’t reciprocated there too.
Let’s face it, there are certain economic realities at play as well. Maybe that is enough to keep Europe open. Please understand that I am for all legal borders being opened. My strategy is merely to perpetuate that re-opening.
I am academic that travelled from EU to the US 3 or 4-times per year prior to the travel ban. Now, I have not been in the US for 18 months. This non-sense ban, that has ZERO to do with science and EVERYTHING with US politics, is making lots of people here in the EU really angry with the US. Academics like me now have to apply for visa and go through crazy procedure, and pay 580 USD fees for the pleasure, but our US colleagues are entering EU almost like before Covid19. Is this fair?? I must say I was really cheering when Biden defeated Trump, as I was hoping for the return of friendly, sane and rational policies… and you can imagine my disappointment with Biden administration is even bigger than frustrations have been with previous Trump administration.
Enjoy what you would have voted for if you could.
Or…to be fair, close up air travel to both Mexico & or Central/South America. Then it would make sense and be fair!! How about that!?
Yes it would. And close the land border too.
Matthew’s idea depends on who he holds allegiance to. If it is the United States, then he should put U.S. interests first. If if is to himself and his family, he should put his personal interests first. If it an armchair thinking exercise and he is, for this discussion, the master of the world, then he should put the world’s interest first and above those of his family and the U.S.
Even if one looks at U.S. interests only, the equation is complex. What is the value of restoring economic ties? What is the value of an American death? Is vaccination alone sufficient? It’s certainly cheaper and less complex for the traveler to be vaccinated than to have to also test and quarantine or test alone or quarantine alone.
In a few days, Canada will be allowing visits from Americans who are vaccinated and tested. Much better than the old policy of allowing non-essential visits from Americans deemed as “essential” and prohibiting essential visits from Americans deemed as “non-essential”. But still an expensive process for a half day visit.
Were you pushing for America to lock out Canada all those months the Canadian border was closed to the US and US border was open to Canadians?
COVID-19 numbers between the two were like night and day.
Sure. But there was no reason to keep vaccinated Americans out of Canada while letting all Canadians into America.
I agree with you that the US policy to Europe is ridiculous…I’m just asking for consistency
I agree.
I also applauded US efforts to punish India for restricting flights–
https://liveandletsfly.com/air-india-repatriation-flights/
Still grinding this tired axe? Americans. Don’t. Care. It is an asymmetrical relationship. Europeans want to be friends. Americans are indifferent if they show up at the party or not. Block away. Even more people will go to COVID breeding colonies in cancun. The EU can wait. We can always go to Eastern Europe.
It won’t matter. Shutting out Americans from Europe isn’t going to make the Administration change its mind. After all, they didn’t push Europe to open up for Americans in the first place anyway; Europe did that themselves because they wanted to help many of their tourism-dependent countries. As far as the government is concerned, travel helps to spread Covid (and they are not entirely wrong). So if Americans are prevented from going to some more places, that’s perfectly ok. Ultimately who will care? Just the small proportion of Americans who want to travel to Europe..the majority of Americans? Couldn’t care less and probably didn’t even know there was a travel ban anyway!
Your comment summarizes how much Americans in general are so out of touch with what happens outside the country. It is the mentality that Americans don’t need to leave America. It is not about how many people travel to Europe, Asia, Latin America, etc.. It is about how much money the ones that travel for business bring into this country. It is about business. No, you don’t close big contracts with customers in Europe and other places via Zoom. You don’t do most of the businesses via Zoom. There is an aspect of personal interaction and relationship that most Americans don’t understand. So, it is not about travel bloggers going on vacation to stay at a Park Hyatt in Paris. It is about large US corporations closing large deals with customers outside the US. This administration doesn’t realize that Covid will never be extinct. Flu is still around. They need to stop this BS. They told people to get vaccinated because it was safe and your chances to get sick or die from this virus were minimum. And they still ask you to wear a mask. Enough is enough. There is a vaccine there and Americans are being paid to get it. Let vaccinated people live their lives and Darwin take care of the rest.
100% agreed. Very well put.
Just funnel personal to the southern border. Anyone can walk him without a visa or a Covid test and come here. Oh, and they also get a free vaccine if they want.
I wonder if Biden is actually a plastic surgery clone of Trump. All his bans are hurting Liberal Europe and the Liberal Coastal Blue State Elites. While at the same time, the Rednecks in Fly-Over country don’t care one bit about banning Europeans.
Watch your mouth as the Red Necks in Fly-Over country ate the ones producing the food you eat. You just showed how ignorant you are about your own country.
You mean Whole Foods doesn’t grow their produce in rooftop gardens? Oh, say it can’t be true for John’s sake. LOL
I am with Matthew on this one. Further boarder restrictions from the US side is pointless and I have seen no presented evidence that this is preventing any covid infections. These restrictions serve no actual purpose and seem quite disconnected from reality. As someone who is a supporter of this Administration, they are getting this one wrong – these restrictions need to go.
I agree but it’s better to have borders open at least in one direction, rather than have all the borders closed totally.
Happy that my relatives from USA can come to visit in Italy this summer.
Stupid Biden should drop the testing requirement for US citizens returning home.
In Guatemala City on Wednesday, my wife bought a Negative Covid test at the airport, at a testing center the Guatemalan government said was never licensed and never shut down. 100% of the tests are negative. 100% of the money stays in Guatemala.
Guatemala accepts the US CDC vax card for entry but the anti-American Biden administration does not accept our own document. Instead, Joe trusts fake foreign Covid tests.
I thought Trump was dumb, but Biden is brain dead.
You do realize that this testing requirement was implemented by the Trump administration right?
It was a Trump policy? So doesn’t that mean that you should reflectively oppose that policy “just because”….well… Orange Cheeto Man Bad!? Isn’t that the correct TDS response?
Haha!
You guys are entertaining.
Didn’t realize i stumbled onto a Qanon/Fox News message group based on all the comments here. Time to google how to block certain blogs from showing up on boardingarea. I came here to read about travel, not someone’s asinine dislike of the administration because someone they know in europe can’t travel to the united states while the country is hitting one of its worst covid waves since the pandemic begin. but booo freakin hoo lets whine about this instead or illegal immigrants from mexico which i fail to understand how it relates to the current topic at hand. And i thought Gary Leff was annoying.
I’m much more concerned about millions of leftist BlueAnon folks than the mythical “Qanon” group. I’m sure your pursuit of utopian dreams can be justified by anything that supposedly “helps” the “greater good”….even if it requires severe mental gymnastics to justify it.
Carry on.