Selling into Mexico looks simple on a map and complicated at the border. Every commercial shipment needs a pedimento, duties hinge on classification, and low value parcels face their own rules. This guide walks US brands through the basics before the first order ships.
The pedimento is the legal record of the import. It states who imported the goods, what they are, how they were classified and valued, and what duties and taxes were paid. Mexican law requires a licensed customs broker, an agente aduanal, to file it, so a US brand cannot simply hand paperwork to a carrier and expect the same flow as a domestic shipment.
Because the pedimento ties the goods to a Mexican importer of record, foreign brands usually work through a local partner, a distributor, or a fiscal representative structure. Who plays that role decides who can reclaim taxes, who answers audits, and who owns the goods on paper while they sit in a Mexican warehouse.
Mexican import duty depends on the product's classification, and VAT at 16 percent applies on top of the duty paid value for most goods. Preferential rates under the US Mexico Canada Agreement help only when the goods genuinely qualify as originating and the paperwork proves it, which means supplier declarations collected before shipping, not after an assessment.
Low value courier shipments have simplified routes, but they were designed for occasional parcels, not for a brand feeding a marketplace warehouse every week. Splitting commercial stock into small parcels to fit simplified channels is a known abuse pattern, and Mexican customs actively looks for it. Volume belongs in formal entries, even when the per parcel maths looks tempting.
A wrong tariff code on the pedimento does not just change one duty payment. Mexican customs can review past entries, and a systematic error across a year of shipments becomes a back duty assessment with penalties. Brands should classify their catalogue once, carefully, with the broker who will file the entries, and then lock those codes into their shipping systems.
Valuation draws equal attention. Related party pricing, assists such as free tooling or design work, and royalties can all belong in the customs value. Declaring the invoice price without asking what else belongs in the value is how brands end up with assessments that surprise their finance team two years later.
Most US brands start one of two ways. Selling cross border direct to Mexican consumers through a marketplace programme keeps the importer problem with the platform, at the cost of margin and control. Stocking in Mexico through a local partner suits brands with proven demand, and justifies the pedimento process, local tax registration, and proper classification work.
Either way, the sequence matters. Decide who the importer of record is, agree classifications with the filing broker, confirm how VAT will be handled, and only then publish delivery promises to Mexican customers. Brands that sell first and solve customs second end up apologising to customers whose parcels are stuck at the border.
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It is Mexico's official customs import declaration, filed by a licensed customs broker for commercial shipments. It records the importer, the goods, their classification and value, and the duties and taxes paid, and it serves as the legal proof that the goods entered Mexico correctly.
Generally a Mexican entity or a properly structured local arrangement is needed, which is why US brands work with distributors, local partners, or fiscal representation. The structure should be settled before goods ship, because it affects tax recovery and audit responsibility.
Only for goods that qualify as originating under the agreement's rules of origin, with documentation to prove it. A product shipped from the US is not automatically originating, especially if it was made elsewhere and only warehoused in the US.
Simplified low value channels are meant for occasional shipments. Splitting commercial inventory to fit them is treated as an abuse pattern, and discovery can mean seized goods, penalties, and losing access to the channel entirely.