Mexico — SHCP/SAT raises tax rate on low-value courier/parcel imports from 19% to 33.5%

Mechanism

SAT's simplified customs regime lets courier and parcel-delivery shipments valued at USD 2,500 or less clear customs under a flat ad valorem tax instead of the standard formal-entry tariff schedule. The Cuarta Resolución amends the Reglas Generales de Comercio Exterior para 2025 to raise that flat rate from 19% to 33.5% for shipments originating in countries without a free trade agreement with Mexico. China has no FTA with Mexico, so the rate increase falls almost entirely on Chinese-origin low-value parcels — the channel used by Shein, Temu and AliExpress, and, per subsequent reporting, by other retailers (including Walmart de México) sourcing low-value SKUs through the same courier pathway.

Downstream implications

• Raises landed cost on Chinese-origin cross-border e-commerce parcels by

roughly 14.5 percentage points, narrowing the price gap between platform-direct imports and domestically stocked or nearshored goods.

• Consistent with Mexico's broader 2025-26 pattern of tightening non-FTA

import channels (see the LIGIE/TIGIE tariff-line decrees and the IMMEX/textile decree already in the register) under nearshoring and US-alignment pressure.

• Courier and logistics operators (DHL, FedEx, UPS, Mexican domestic

parcel carriers) absorb new compliance/valuation burden to apply the higher rate correctly per origin.

Open questions

• Whether SAT extends the higher rate to postal-channel (non-courier)

low-value shipments, which were reported as a separate, still-lower-rate channel as of the effective date.

• Whether this becomes a template followed by other LatAm markets facing

the same Chinese-platform de-minimis volume.