Mexico: Changes in customs compliance regulations

During 2020 and 2021, several customs criteria and procedures were modified, so there is a new parameter to be considered in the compliance for daily import and export operations, which attend to the following:

Exportation with no sale/donation

A general rule of particular incidence for maquiladora/IMMEX companies is that the exportation of goods that are not the object of a sale or that are transferred free of charge must now mandatorily be accompanied with a specifically regulated electronic invoice, substituting the option to do so that was previously in place.

Duration of Electronic Tax Audits

Generally, electronic audits (those carried out digitally through the electronic mailbox) should last no more than 6 months, but a two-year exception was established for foreign trade audits; an amendment limits such exceptional duration specifically to cases where information has been requested from foreign customs authorities.

Elimination of Notable Benefits for Certified Companies

For foreign trade purposes, various degrees of certification allow importing companies with temporary importation regimes, such as the IMMEX, to import without paying VAT or the excise tax on products and services. Numerous other benefits had been established as part of the certification programme, but recent amendments to the rules significantly cut back on these benefits for companies that obtain their certification or its renewal after 25 July 2020, including preferential terms for VAT refund requests, benefits and safeguards regarding Importers Roster registration, facilities to rectify customs manifests or otherwise self-correction, among various other facilities and benefits that were eliminated.

Mexican official standards

Annex 2.4.1. of the Rules and General Criteria in Foreign Trade issued by the Ministry of Economy (Annex NOM) was modified, and its most significant additions consist of:

• As of 1 October 2020, repackaged food, and non-alcoholic beverages subject to NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010, must comply with a specific “front labelling system”.
• Restriction of the use of children’s characters, animations, cartoons, and celebrities in the labelling of pre-packaged food and non-alcoholic beverages subject to NOM-051-SCFI / SSA1-2010, as of 1 April 2021.
• The assumptions of exemption from compliance with a NOM at the point of entry to the country, in which non-commercialisation letters were normally used, were eliminated.

The Ministry of Economy has been issuing various official letters through which it defined some criteria on the field of application of certain standards that have resulted in a complexity in establishing its field of application.

Integration of new “decrementable” concepts

As of 26 February 2021, it is considered an obligation to indicate in the import customs declarations, within the “main heading”, the amounts paid for “decrementable”, which are defined as the payment in national currency for freight, insurance premiums, loading, unloading and others, made after the date of anchoring or mooring of the ship (maritime transport), crossing the international dividing line (land transport), or arrival at the first national airport (air transport).

Read the WTS Global Customs Newsletter here.