Amendments to Mexico’s General Law of Import and Export Tariffs, Decree for the Border Region and Northern Border Region, PROSEC Decree and IMMEX Decree

On September 20, 2019, a new Decree was published in the Official Journal of the Federation which serves to amend numerous federal laws, including the Decree Amending the General Law of Import and Export Tariffs, the Decree establishing a General Import Tax for the Border Region and Northern Border Region, the Decree Establishing various Sector Promotion Programs (PROSEC for its Spanish acronym), and the Decree for the Promotion of the Manufacturing, Maquila and Export Services Industry (IMMEX for its Spanish acronym), effective as of September 22, 2019.The new amendments are mainly aimed at the steel sector, and feature the following highlights:The 15% tariff on the importation of various steel products remains in place. It should be noted that this new provision aims to renew the previous measure established in the Decree published on March 25, 2019 in the Official Journal of the Federation to continue to protect Mexico’s domestic steel industry.The amendments contain a tariff relief schedule for 228 tariff codes ranging from 10% by September 22, 2021, 5% - 7% by September 22, 2023 and either a full exemption or 3% tariff by August 22, 2024.Similarly, the amendments create 82 new tariff codes (70 codes with full exemptions, 10 codes with a 5% tariff and 2 codes with a 15% tariff). Meanwhile, 25 codes are amended and 21 codes are eliminated.In addition, the IMMEX, PROSEC, Border Region and Northern Border Region Decrees were amended to include or eliminate tariff codes in accordance with the changes made to the General Law of Import and Export Tariffs.Finally, an explanatory note was added to Chapter 72 of the General Law of Import and Export Tariffs to clarify that alloy steel should be considered and classified as tool grade steel.