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Mexico Takes Additional Action to Thwart Illegal Textile, Apparel and Footwear Imports.
The Mexican government recently unveiled additional measures to crack down on illegal imports of textile, apparel, and footwear articles, including products of Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong origin. Specifically, Mexico’s Tax Administration Service (SAT) recently amended its foreign trade rules for 2026 as well as various annexes thereof (including in particular Annex 29) to prohibit most, if not all, textile, apparel, and footwear products from taking advantage of strategic in-bond facilities (“recintos fiscalizados estratégicos”, or RFEs). These are facilities located within the constituency of any Mexican customs office, belonging to any individual, that are enabled for the temporary introduction of goods into Mexico under the in-bond facility customs regime without being subject to tariff or non-tariff regulations.
Previously, the foreign trade rules contained strict guidelines on how textile, apparel, and footwear articles could be introduced into an RFE and only where such goods would (i) undergo manufacturing, transformation or repair operations while in the RFE, or (ii) be introduced into the RFE for handling, storage and warehousing purposes.
The previous guidelines warned about various smuggling practices involving these types of goods, including instances where finished textile, apparel, and footwear products that were entered into an RFE ostensibly to undergo manufacturing, transformation, or repair operations were subsequently withdrawn from the RFE having the same essential characteristics and without paying all applicable customs duties and taxes and in violation of the relevant provisions for definitive importations into Mexico.
Another illicit scheme ostensibly involved finished textile, apparel, and footwear products entered into an RFE for handling, storage, and warehousing purposes that were subsequently withdrawn from the RFE under a different tariff line and description and without paying all applicable customs duties and taxes.
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Instead of stepping up previous enforcement efforts to ensure that these sensitive imports complied with all applicable RFE requirements, the Mexican government has decided to outright forbid these products from taking advantage of the RFE program. This action is in line with previous decisions by Mexican authorities to establish more stringent requirements for bonded warehouses and IMMEX program beneficiaries, as well as tighter restrictions on the extent of IMMEX operations involving sensitive products, which has negatively impacted imports of textiles, apparel, and footwear from the Chinese Mainland and other Asian suppliers.
Source: research.hktdc.com
Source: research.hktdc.com