Courier and parcel companies can import goods from the United States and Canada exempt from paying tariffs of up to US$117 and of these, the first US$50 are exempt from VAT; If you import a product from China, you do not pay tariffs if it is less than US$50.
Electronic commerce platforms allow competition and facilitate imports to Mexico, highlighted Fernando de Mateo, former Mexican ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
With the growing digital economy, a consumer can order a product from their phone through Alibaba, Amazon or Mercado Libre and that product can be imported by these platforms from any country, without the buyer knowing in a large number of cases the origin. of its origin.
But the underlying competition occurs between producers and sellers who set the prices of their goods.
"You can buy on Amazon or Liverpool. Uber can take you and bring you groceries from the supermarket. The possibilities are endless and those who compete are the producers and sellers to be able to sell things through digital platforms," commented De Mateo.
Imports through these platforms, including those made through “de minimis” thresholds, are integrated into foreign trade statistics with the corresponding tariff classification for each product.
As of April of this year, Mexican imports of merchandise grew 4% to a record of US$201,297 million and, internally, imports of consumer goods exceeded that increase, with a jump of 8.7% to US$29,679 million. surpassing in dynamism imports of intermediate goods (+1.6%), although they were below those of capital goods (+16.42%).
In particular, De Mateo explained that Mexico imports mainly intermediate goods and capital goods from China and considered that purchases of textiles and clothing from the Chinese market are overestimated.
“We have an obsession with what we knew when the China market opened, when there were one-dollar watches and three-dollar shoes. Above all, there is this obsession of textile producers and those in the clothing industry with China,” he added.
The main foreign supplier of threads, textiles and clothing to the Mexican market in 2023 was the United States, with US$ 2,681 million, a year-on-year drop of 11.5%, according to WTO data. In second place was China, with US$ 1,768 million, a decrease of 7.1%.
In Mexico, a franchise is established for courier and parcel companies for the import of goods imported from the United States and Canada: exempt from paying tariffs for up to US$117 and of these, the first US$50 are exempt from VAT.
And if a product is imported to Mexico from China, it does not pay tariffs if it is less than US$50, which is the “de minimis” threshold.
The National Chamber of the Clothing Industry (Canaive) calculates that with the de minimis level, digital commerce platforms stop paying US$ 2,097 million a year in VAT, duties for customs procedures and tariffs.
United States, first supplier
On the contrary, from its North American partners, in imports to the United States, the level is US$ 100 exempt from tariffs and VAT.
In turn, Canadian customs exempt products imported from Mexico and the United States from paying tariffs of up to US$150 Canadian. Of these, the first US$ 40 are exempt from VAT.
Among other factors, due to their higher production costs and the imposition of tariffs in certain markets, companies from China have moved production centers to countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.
“It is not Amazon who decides where the product will come from, but the seller by establishing how much he is willing to sell his product for,” De Mateo concluded.
In 2023, other foreign suppliers of yarns, textiles and clothing in the Mexican market were Germany (US$ 156 million), Canada (US$ 134 million) and Vietnam (US$ 106 million).
