Canadian truckers will remain exempted from COVID-19 vaccine requirements at the international border, but unvaccinated drivers from the United States will be turned back starting Jan. 15, a spokesperson at the Canada Border Services Agency said on Wednesday.

Canadian truck drivers arriving at the international border will also remain exempt from pre-arrival, arrival and post-arrival testing and quarantine requirements, Rebecca Purdy, the agency's spokesperson, said.

The decision is a change in policy to the government's decision from November, when it asked all truck drivers to be vaccinated by Jan. 15, and from earlier this week when it asked Canadian drivers to quarantine for 14 days.

More than two-thirds of the C$650 billion ($511 billion) in goods traded annually between Canada and the United States travels on roads.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa, and Rachna Dhanrajani and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Leslie Adler) ((RachnaManojkumar.Dhanrajani@thomsonreuters.com;))