Are WA-BC border crossings still falling amid trade war? What latest data show

In the weeks following the Trump administration’s announcement that the U.S. would impose tariffs on imports from Canada, along with comments referring to the country as the possible 51st state, the number of people traveling between the two countries fell sharply.

While the full impacts remain to be seen, Washington and British Columbia have longstanding economic ties. In the past, around a quarter of the province’s international visitors have come from the Evergreen State, according to tourism promotion agency Destination British Columbia. In Whatcom County, nearly 12% of taxable retail purchases in a given year are made by Canadians, according to previous reporting in The Herald.

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But has cross-border travel recovered after the initial shock of the tariffs wore off, or has it worsened as the trade war continues to escalate?

Here’s what the most recent numbers say.

WA-BC border crossings remain low

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics maintains an online dashboard of cross-border travel statistics.

According to the dashboard, which is updated through May of 2025, 354,133 car passengers entered the U.S. in May through Blaine’s two border crossings, the busiest in Washington.

That’s roughly on par with the totals from February, March and April, each of which fell between 329,000 and 375,000.

But May’s total still represents a 35% drop-off from the 544,628 passengers who crossed the border in Blaine across the same month last year. According to BTS data, the gap between Blaine border crossings in 2024 and in 2025 has widened each month, from 14.1% in February to 31.3% in March and 33.5% in April.

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Canada’s border crossing data dashboard, which is updated through April of 2025, indicates the bulk of that is from a drop-off in the number of Canadians visiting the U.S.

In April, 261,529 U.S. residents crossed the border into British Columbia by land, along with 294,978 Canadians returning from the U.S. The previous April, those numbers stood at 265,977 and 575,783, respectively. That suggests there’s been a 1.7% drop in Americans visiting British Columbia, compared to a 49.8% fall in Canadians making the trip the other way.

Like U.S. data, Canada’s border statistics suggest the year-to-year drop-off has grown with each month. March saw a 41% reduction in Canadians crossing back over the border into British Columbia, but just a 5.3% drop in travelers from the U.S. In February, those numbers stood at 29.7% and 4.3%.

Most recent U.S.-Canada border crossing data

The Whatcom Council of Governments maintains a dashboard of border crossing data — supplied by the Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse — that runs through June. It indicates that the number of cars entering the U.S. through the Peace Arch, Pacific Highway, Lynden and Sumas crossings increased in June for the second month in a row.

The drop-off from the previous year, which stood at 31% in June, had also shrunk for two straight months from a peak of 36% in April.

However, there’s some indication that trend has started to reverse.

While the Canada Border Services Agency declined to provide regional data for July, it sent The Herald its national border-crossing numbers through the week ending July 12. According to CBSA, 34.7% fewer Canadians crossed into the U.S. by land the week ending July 12, compared to the same time last year. A week earlier, that number stood at 35.8%.

In June, meanwhile, that figure was between 27.8% and 32.9% each week.

Border crossings the other way remain relatively steady. The number of U.S. citizens crossing into Canada by land was down 4.1% year-to-year the week ending July 12 and 12.1% the week ending July 5.

Across June, each week saw between 6.9% and 11.1% fewer U.S. residents crossing into Canada than the corresponding week last year.