Some of the key e-commerce customs changes that could go into effect in January include Mexico eliminating the de minimis threshold for imports from all countries except the U.S. and Canada. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)
Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Mexican government aims to regulate Asian e-commerce imports; Emerson Electric plans $22.5M factory in Chihuahua; Chinese firm plans $20M machinery factory in Leon, Mexico; and Investment firm constructing logistics center in Laredo, Texas.
Mexican government aims to regulate Asian e-commerce imports
The Mexican government plans to enforce new customs regulations affecting e-commerce imports into the country starting in January.
The requirements — which include additional documentation and more detailed product information for cross-border transactions — are aimed at cutting down on tax fraud, smuggling and other violations.
According to Carlos Barbosa, vice president of e-commerce solutions for ePost Global, the changes are already impacting importers, parcel and courier providers in Mexico.
Cypress, California-based ePost Global is a technology enabled global shipping solutions provider. The company has facilities in Chicago, New Jersey, Miami and Los Angeles.
“There’s an influx of brands from China, cheap stuff, low cost, low value, stuff,” Barbosa told FreightWaves in an interview. “A lot of these shippers, or people bringing stuff into Mexico, are abusing the system.”
The e-commerce customs regulations that will begin being enforced in January are separate from the Dec. 19 decree from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum aimed at cracking down on border-skipping e-commerce sellers.
The measure introduced by Sheinbaum went into effect immediately and is part of Mexico’s broader technology strategies focused on protecting the country’s domestic industries.
The e-commerce customs regulations going into effect in January will affect the importation of everything from clothing, home decorations, jewellery, kitchen utensils, toys and electronics.
“Mexico has a threshold up to $50 where there’s no duties or taxes, those are the minimums,” Barbosa said. “This year, there has been a huge influx in the volume of stuff under $50. Mexican authorities, they started kind of figuring out, hold on, is this really under $50? Are they declaring the actual value? So the government is tightening controls.”
The e-commerce customs regulations include a detailed description of each importation, such as type of items, quantity, quality and the tax identification number of the recipient in Mexico.
The new regulations were introduced earlier this year and initially went into effect in October, but could be tweaked in January. The increased customs paperwork caused a large backlog of parcels waiting to clear customs in Mexico, prompting authorities to push enforcement of the regulations to January.
“It was October when they first tried to enforce it. It created a lot of backlogs, because marketplaces are not used to collecting this information for the Mexican consumer,” Barbosa said.
Mexico’s e-commerce market is the second-largest in Latin America, behind Brazil. Mexico’s online retail market is predicted to grow to $63 billion by 2025, according to Statista.
Some of the largest e-commerce companies in Mexico are Amazon and Mercado Libre, followed by Walmart and Liverpool.
Some of the key e-commerce customs changes that could go into effect in January include Mexico eliminating the “de minimis” threshold for imports from all countries except the U.S. and Canada. A 19% tax could apply to all imports into Mexico from Asia, Europe and South America.
Starting Jan. 1, all imports into Mexico will require customs declarations and payments from $0.01 in value.
Mexican authorities have said if the U.S. government imposes new tariffs on Mexican goods, there could be retaliatory measures against U.S. products, which could impact conditions for shipments originating from the U.S.
Barbosa said ePost Global has been letting their customers know about the changes that will go into effect in January.
“If you’re in the e-commerce space internationally, give us your phone number, email, complete name, address, proper classification and description of your commodities you’re shipping, that is extremely important,” Barbosa said. “Always make sure the data on the product, the commodities that you’re selling, is very clean and inaccurate. Then, if you want to target a specific market, maybe focus on the website or the marketplace to be specific to that country.”
Emerson Electric plans $22.5M factory in Chihuahua
Emerson Electric Co. plans to open a second plant in the Mexican city of Chihuahua, which will generate 600 direct jobs.
The $22.5 million facility will manufacture measurement instruments. The company did not provide a timetable for the construction of the facility
“Chihuahua is ideally located for manufacturing, which will help position Emerson to competitively meet the future needs of our measurement instrumentation customers in the region,” Michael Muck, Emerson’s vice president of global operations, said in a news release.
Chihuahua is located in northern Mexico about 230 miles from El Paso, Texas.
Emerson’s first plant in Chihuahua opened in1995 and currently employs 700 workers.
St. Louis-based Emerson (NYSE: EMR) is a global provider of five business segments: process management, industrial automation, network power, climate technologies, and commercial and residential solutions.
Chinese firm plans $20M machinery factory in Leon, Mexico
Mesnac Co. plans to invest $20 million to construct a rubber tire machinery plant in the Mexican city of Leon.
The facility will manufacture equipment for rubber processing as well as other machinery for the production of mechanical parts and components.
“Mexico borders the United States and is an important tire production base, which helps the company to be closer to North America,” the company told European Rubber Journal.
The facility will be the company’s first manufacturing operation in North America. Leon is located in central Mexico in the state of Guanajuato.
Mesnac also has a research and technical center in Akron, Ohio. Qingdao, China-based Mesnac Co. is a technology firm that makes equipment and software solutions for rubber production companies.
Investment firm constructing logistics center in Laredo, Texas
Investment firm Realterm has partnered with Titan Development to develop a speculative 440,300-square-foot cross-dock logistics facility in Laredo, Texas.
The development, located on 26-acres, will include 150 truck dock doors, 264 trailer stalls, a 185-foot truck court and 36-foot clear heights, told Virtual Builders Exchange.
“Laredo’s prime transportation-advantaged location and nearshoring driven growth make it an ideal site for our development,” Joe Noon, RealTerm’s vice president of development said.
Realterm is a transportation-focused real estate and infrastructure investments firm based in Annapolis, Maryland. In August, the company announced plans to construct a 236,693-square-foot transload facility in Laredo.
