International Shipping from / to Mexico

Customs in Mexico

The Customs department in Mexico is called the Aduano and they follow the General Accord on Tarriffs and Trade (GATT) system in their coding for shipments.  You must file a pedimento (application) with the Aduano when sending things into the country and this may be followed up by needing an import permit if your shipments are going to occur on a regular basis mainly.  You will need to have a Certificate of Origin and a Certificate of Quality when shipping anything to Mexico, regardless of its frequency.  You can either file these yourself or hire a Customs broker to do so on your behalf.

Security concerns when shipping to Mexico

There has been quite a bit of violence in Mexico in recent years, especially in the border states along their border with the United States.  This is something to keep in mind when planning to ship something to Mexico as that violence is not always isolated to drug cartels or drug dealers.  Innocent people, like delivery workers or postal carrier, get caught in the cross fire at times which would cause your shipment to not become a high priority at that very moment.  Because of the influx of drugs in Mexico, more and more packages going in and out of the country are being subject to routine searches to help maintain safety concerns.

Preparing your shipment to Mexico

Since you realize that your package can and, most likely, will be searched given the volatile of Mexico nowadays, it is best to prepare your shipment to handle searching.  To do this you will want to make sure you do not wrap and contents, such as if you were sending a birthday gift, because that wrapping paper will be destroyed if and when it is searched.  You may also want to pack the contents with plenty of bubble wrap or Styrofoam peanuts to give it some extra padding.  That way when it is repacked they will have that extra padding to help secure your items in the box or container.