Mexico is the corridor where the tariff question changed fastest. Duty is assessed on the FOB value — the Latin American exception, not the rule — but the 2025–26 schedule raised rates on a long list of Chinese-origin goods, which makes the customs classification the most valuable piece of work you can do before you quote.
Mexico is one of the few markets on this site that uses the FOB value for duty — the US, Canada, Mexico and South Africa are the exceptions, and everywhere else charges on CIF. If you are porting a European cost model into Mexico, your duty is overstated by the freight multiplied by the tariff rate.
Chinese quotations are normally FOB. Keep freight and insurance separately identified on the invoice: Mexican customs law allows them to be excluded from the customs value when they are shown as distinct from the price of the goods, which is exactly what an FOB quote does.
Transpacific, no canal, 2026 planning figures:
| Port pair | 40ft HQ | 20ft GP | Transit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manzanillo | ~$3,100 | ~$1,950 | 22–28 days |
| Lázaro Cárdenas | ~$3,050 | ~$1,900 | 23–29 days |
| Ensenada (Baja California) | ~$2,950 | ~$1,850 | 18–24 days |
| Veracruz (Gulf) | ~$3,500 | ~$2,200 | 28–35 days |
Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas serve the industrial belt around Guadalajara and Mexico City; Ensenada suits Baja and the US border plants. The ocean rate difference is small, the inland difference is not.
The general import duty (IGI) is charged on the FOB customs value. Rates have risen sharply for goods of non-FTA origin, with the 2025–26 decrees lifting a long list of tariff lines covering textiles, footwear, steel, aluminium, auto parts and some electrical goods. On this shipment duty is $6,900, 15% of the FOB value. On a product near a rate boundary that percentage is the difference between a viable and a dead deal.
The Derecho de Trámite Aduanero is a customs processing charge of 0.8% of the customs value. It is small, statutory, and left out of almost every hand-built Mexican cost sheet. On this shipment it is $368.
Value added tax is charged on the FOB value plus duty plus DTA plus the inland freight to destination. A Mexican RFC-registered business recovers it; a foreign seller shipping DDP without a Mexican registration carries it. The border-region rate is 8% rather than 16%, which is worth knowing if your customer is in Tijuana or Juárez.
| Charge | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Terminal handling (THC) | $250–$400 per 40ft |
| Customs broker (agente aduanal) + pedimento | $200–$350 |
| NOM certification (per line) | $300–$900 |
| Manzanillo → Guadalajara | $450–$700 |
| Yard storage and inspection | $40–$120 per day |
Every Mexican import moves on a pedimento filed by a licensed customs broker. There is no self-declaration route, so the broker fee is a fixed cost of entry rather than a negotiable one.
FOB $46,000 of goods, $3,100 of ocean freight into Mexico (Manzanillo), 3,000 sellable units, and the reference duty rate for HS chapter 85. Every line below comes from the same engine the calculator runs:
| Component | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Goods — FOB value | Supplier quote (FOB) | $46,000.00 |
| Main freight to destination port | Forwarder | $3,100.00 |
| Marine / cargo insurance (0.3% on 110% CIF) | 0.30% on 110% CIF | $162.57 |
| Import duty (15% on FOB) | 15% × FOB | $6,900.00 |
| Customs processing (DTA) | 0.8% of FOB | $368.00 |
| Destination port, THC, brokerage & docs | Agent estimate | $660.00 |
| Inland delivery to final destination | Estimate | $480.00 |
| IVA (16%) | 16% × (FOB + duty) | $8,540.80 |
| Total landed cost | — | $66,211 |
| Cost per sellable unit (3,000 units) | — | $22.07 |
| Uplift over FOB | — | +43.9% |
Read the composition rather than the total. Freight and insurance together are 4.9% of the landed cost, duty is 10.4%, and IVA is 12.9%. The line that looks biggest is the one a registered importer gets back.
Mexico assesses duty on the FOB value, so the ocean bill sits outside the customs value entirely. On this shipment that is $465 of duty you are not paying — which the European model would have charged you, and which is the single structural difference between a Mexican cost sheet and a German one.
| Cost line | Inside the customs value? | Duty charged on it |
|---|---|---|
| Goods, FOB | Yes | $6,900 |
| Ocean freight | No | — |
| Insurance | No | — |
| DTA, 0.8% of the goods value | Charged separately | $368 |
| Inland freight to Guadalajara | No | — |
The consequence is counter-intuitive for anyone used to European freight: the cheapest carrier is genuinely the cheapest, and a port decision is a pure logistics decision with no duty consequence. Ensenada against Veracruz differs by $550 on the ocean leg and nothing at all in duty.
The DTA is the line that hand-built Mexican cost sheets omit. It is 0.8% of the customs value, statutory at every entry, and 0.6% of the landed total on this shipment.
The importer must be registered in the Padrón de Importadores, and for certain sensitive sectors (textiles, footwear, chemicals, auto parts) in the sectoral registry as well. Without it the pedimento cannot be filed at all, and registration is not a same-week process.
Mexican Official Standards apply to a wide range of consumer goods, and compliance is evidenced by a NOM certificate obtained before import. Labelling requirements are specific — country of origin, importer RFC and address in Spanish — and a non-conforming label is a customs rejection, not a warning.
The invoice must state the RFC of the importer, the tariff fraction, the country of origin and the incoterm. Errors here are reworked at the border, and border rework is billed by the hour.
Get the tariff fraction right, then re-check it. Mexico is the only corridor on this site where the reference rate can be wrong by 20 percentage points on a single line. A broker opinion before you quote costs a fraction of one misclassified container.
Use the FOB basis deliberately. Because freight is outside the customs value, cheaper freight has no duty penalty — the opposite of the EU. On a $3,100 ocean rate at 15% duty that is $465 of duty you are not paying, and it means the cheapest carrier is genuinely the cheapest.
Consider IMMEX if you manufacture. The IMMEX programme allows temporary duty-free import of inputs for production and re-export. If your Chinese components feed a Mexican assembly operation, the duty model changes completely — and the landed cost calculator can model the duty-free case by setting the rate to zero.
Check the border-region IVA rate. The northern border strip uses 8% IVA instead of 16%. On a high-value consumer shipment that is a real difference in the cash you tie up, even where it is recoverable later.
Do not assume nearshoring is cheaper. Mexico is a fast, short-transit route with a mid-range tariff and a real compliance cost. On high-tariff lines a Vietnam-origin shipment into the US can still beat a Chinese-origin one into Mexico. Cost both before the strategy is decided.
Three of the seven tools on this site are what this corridor actually needs, and they are not the same three as on the German or Nigerian route.
Freight is a 2026 planning benchmark for a 40ft HQ, transpacific, no canal. The four ports quoted above differ by less than $600 on the ocean leg and considerably more on the inland one, which is why the rate alone is a poor way to choose between them.
Duty is the general import duty (IGI) at the MFN rate for HS 85 — 15% of the FOB value. This is the figure to be suspicious of. The 2025–26 schedule changes are line-specific, so a chapter-level reference rate can be wrong by twenty percentage points on a single tariff fraction. A broker opinion is the only reliable answer.
The DTA is 0.8% of the customs value, statutory at every entry. IVA is 16% on the goods value plus duty plus DTA plus the inland leg, and 8% in the northern border strip.
Every Mexican import moves on a pedimento filed by a licensed customs broker. There is no self-declaration route, so the broker fee is a fixed cost of entry and the broker, not the importer, is legally responsible for the classification.
The calculator opens pre-set to Mexico with this chapter's reference duty rate, the freight benchmark above and your unit count. Change the chapter, drop in your forwarder's real rate, and add any additional tariff programme on its own line:
FOB. Mexico uses the transaction value of the goods, with international freight and insurance excluded when separately identified on the invoice. This is the US-style basis, not the EU one.
The Derecho de Trámite Aduanero, a customs processing charge of 0.8% of the customs value. It is statutory, charged at every entry, and almost never included in a hand-built cost sheet.
Yes. The 2025–26 decrees raised rates on a long list of tariff lines covering textiles, footwear, steel, aluminium, auto parts and some electrical goods, and the changes applied to goods of non-preferential origin. Because the schedule is line-specific, the only reliable answer is to check your tariff fraction with a broker.
Only if you cannot recover it. A Mexican RFC-registered importer credits it against output VAT. A foreign seller shipping DDP without a Mexican registration carries it permanently — and in the northern border region the rate is 8% rather than 16%.
The same six-layer model, with each destination's own customs basis, levies and certification: