Importing from China to Mexico

In Mexico the importer registered with the SAT is whoever holds an RFC and the legal capacity to import, and that does not change because the freight was negotiated DDP. DDP splits the cost of clearance and of the duties between buyer and seller, but it does not change who appears on the pedimento. If you import to resell and you want to credit import VAT, you need to be the importer yourself. If crediting it does not matter to you, a scheme in which someone else executes clearance is operationally simpler, but you give up that credit.

An RFC, entry in the padrón de importadores, the tariff classification of the product and an agente aduanal to execute clearance. If your product falls within the scope of a NOM, the certificate has to be obtained before shipment, because the tests are carried out on the finished product. For a product with a wireless function, homologation before the telecommunications authority is also required.

The padrón de importadores is the SAT register in which a Mexican company has to be enrolled in order to clear goods on a regular basis. It is a requirement for recurring imports, and there are specific sectorial padrones for certain product categories. A one-off operation can be channelled another way, but for a business that imports continuously, enrolment is the route.

Sea transit from Shenzhen to Manzanillo or Lázaro Cárdenas is usually 20–35 days, and air transit 7–15 days to Ciudad de México, Guadalajara, Monterrey or Querétaro, in both cases with customs clearance included. Add to that the consolidation time at our warehouse. In practice, a door-to-door sea shipment usually sits at 35–55 days from the moment it leaves the factory.

It depends on the category. A passive low-voltage accessory has limited requirements. Anything that includes a power supply, a battery or a wireless function usually falls into regulated categories, and the specific scope depends on the tariff classification of the product. We check what applies before buying, because finding out with the cargo at port forces you to hold it, and the options from that point on are all expensive.

Yes, and it is one of the main reasons to use a consolidation service. All the sellers ship to our Shenzhen warehouse, we combine the orders into a single shipment and you pay one freight, one clearance and one delivery instead of one per supplier. In Mexico, where the derecho de trámite aduanero is a flat fee per operation, the difference is especially clear: the fee is paid once per clearance, not once per supplier.

Yes. We can produce with your brand, remove the manufacturer's labelling at our warehouse before shipping and print and insert manuals, warranties or promotional material with your brand. What we do not accept is reproducing another company's trademark without the authorisation of its owner.