The country's exports grew at an interannual rate of 2.6% in 2023, to US$593,012 million, thereby displacing Russia, Canada, Hong Kong and Belgium.
Mexico rose from thirteenth position in 2022 to ninth in 2023 among the largest product exporters in the world, according to data from the World Trade Organization (WTO), Inegi and the Russian Customs Service.
This is the highest place that Mexico has achieved historically, after having reached tenth place for the only time in 2019.
"Mexico has been competing for this export supremacy for several decades and for some administrations it has been predicted that if Mexico does things correctly to promote the attraction of investment, to continue promoting competitiveness and more, it will become an export power,” said Israel Morales, director of the National Committee on Mexico-United States Relations and International Agreements of the National Council of the Maquiladora and Export Manufacturing Industry (Index).
Mexico's exports grew at an interannual rate of 2.6% in 2023, to US$ 593,012 million, and with this they displaced those of Russia, Canada, Hong Kong and Belgium, since these four nations registered interannual falls in the indicator.
China led the ranking with US$3.4 trillion, followed by the United States (US$2 trillion) and Germany (US$1.7 trillion).
In its most recent trajectory, Mexico lost competitiveness: it went from position 11 in 2020 to 12 in 2021 and then to 13 in 2022.
"We are already beginning to tangibly see in 2023 the effect of the relocation or growth of production lines in some plants that already existed; new investments may begin to arrive in 2024 or 2025," added Morales, referring in general terms to the strengthening of production in Mexico.
Exports from Russia to the world fell 26.7% in 2023, to US$425.1 billion. According to Reuters , the most significant drop occurred in shipments to Europe, which decreased 68% to $84.9 billion, affected by economic sanctions related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After a sharp decline in 2023, Belgian exports are expected to recover to some extent in 2024 and more strongly in 2025, in line with the prospects of trading partners.
In turn, the negative result of exports from Canada was mainly due to the fall in exports of energy products (-18.9%).
Morales highlighted that since the replacement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC), in July 2020, greater certainty was given to investors.
“At that juncture, the disagreement also arose, which today we call the trade war, between the United States and China and that, together with the pandemic, made the United States recognize its vulnerabilities by depending too much on China in terms of inputs, which even They put public health issues at risk.
“This decision by the United States to relocate, to bring back essential supplies and strategic supply chains to the North American region, obviously affects Mexico. The famous nearshoring”, concluded Morales.
