Customs procedures Mexico

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Customs procedures

All goods entering or leaving Mexico have to go through a customs procedure established by the taxpayer based on their intended purpose in Mexico or abroad.

Choose the customs procedure that best suits your goods and operations and make the most of its benefits.
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WHAT ARE CUSTOMS PROCEDURES?

Customs procedures are operations designed to assign a specific customs destination to goods based on a statement submitted by the interested party. The customs procedures we use for import and export traffic are:

  1. Definitive import/export.
  2. Temporary.
  3. Tax warehouse.
  4. Goods-in-transit.
  5. Production, processing, or repair in a bonded warehouse.
  6. Strategic bonded warehouse.

TYPES OF CUSTOM PROCEDURES

  • DEFINITIVE CUSTOMS PROCEDURE

    The definitive customs import procedure is the entry of goods from abroad that will be staying in Mexico for an unlimited period of time. Parties involved in the import of these goods need to certify:

    • Registration in the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP in Spanish) registry of importers.
      Fulfillment of their tax obligations.
    • Registration in Mexico’s Federal Taxpayer Registry (RFC in Spanish).
    • Meeting all legal requirements regarding entry and departure of goods.
    • Inventory control to distinguish domestic goods from foreign goods.
    • The goods’ country and port of origin.
    • The orders given to carry out these operations.
    • Paying foreign trade taxes.
    • Paying countervailing duties or transitional measures where needed.

    In the definitive customs export procedure, parties involved in the export of goods must certify:

    • Registration in Mexico’s Federal Registry of Taxpayers.
    • Registration in the registry of exporters by industry if exporting alcoholic drinks, beer, energy drinks, or processed tobacco.
    • Hiring a customs broker to submit an export form (“pedimento”) to customs.
    • Paying the customs processing fee (DTA in Spanish).
    • Meeting all requirements established for the exported goods by the destination country.

  • TEMPORARY IMPORT/EXPORT

    The temporary import procedure is the entry of goods originating abroad that will remain in Mexico for a limited time and for a specific purpose. There are two kinds of temporary imports of goods:

    • To be returned abroad in the same condition in which they were imported; i.e. without any modifications.
    • To undergo production, processing, or repair.

    No taxes or countervailing duties are paid to the Office of Foreign Trade for either type of import, except as provided by articles 63(A), 105, 108, section III, 110 and 112 of the Mexican Customs Law.

    The temporary export procedure is the departure of goods from Mexico for a limited time and for a specific purpose. Under this classification, no taxes are paid to the Office of Foreign Trade; however, the non-tariff measures (NTMs) must be satisfied as well as the formalities for handling goods under this procedure. There are also two kinds of temporary exports of goods:

    • To be returned in the same condition; i.e. returning to Mexico without any modifications.
    • To undergo processing, repair, or production.

  • TAX WAREHOUSE

    This is storage of foreign or domestic goods in general bonded warehouses which must be approved by the customs authorities. Goods deposited in these warehouses may be removed for:

    • Definitive import, if they originated abroad.
    • Definitive export, if they originated in Mexico.
    • Returning to another country or rejoining the national market of origin.

    Goods under this procedure may be stored for as long as necessary, provided that the warehousing agreement remains in force and the service is paid for.

  • GOODS-IN-TRANSIT

    Goods-in-transit can be either:

    • Domestic: transfer of goods under customs control from one Mexican customs port to another.
    • International: transfer of goods under customs control from one international customs port to another but crossing Mexican borders.

  • PRODUCTION, PROCESSING, OR REPAIR IN A BONDED WAREHOUSE

    This consists of the entry of foreign or domestic goods to these facilities in order to be processed, produced or repaired, either to be returned abroad or exported permanently.

    Entry of foreign goods under this procedure is subject to the general import tax as provided by Article 63(A) and any applicable countervailing duties. The general import tax is determined when assigning the goods to this procedure.

    In no case may goods under this procedure be removed from the bonded warehouse, except to return abroad or to be exported.

    Goods that are stored in these warehouses may be processed or repaired if approved by the authorities. When returning processed or repaired products, the general import tax must be paid if they are part of a drawback program.

  • STRATEGIC BONDED WAREHOUSE

    Entry of foreign, domestic, or inward customs cleared goods to strategic bonded warehouses for a limited time so they may be handled, stored, safeguarded, displayed, sold, distributed, processed, or repaired.

    • Taxes and countervailing duties are not paid to the Office of Foreign Trade for goods under this procedure.
    • These goods are not subject to non-tariff measures or the Official Mexican Standards (NOM in Spanish).
    • Taxes are not levied on unreturned waste products if it can be shown that the waste products were destroyed in compliance with the control provisions established by the Mexican tax administration (SAT in Spanish).
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