IMMEX: OPERATING THE PROGRAM WELL IS AS IMPORTANT AS HAVING IT

IMMEX (Industria Manufacturera, Maquiladora y de Servicios de Exportación) is one of Mexico’s most important competitiveness tools for export manufacturing. It allows companies to temporarily import inputs to transform and export them, improving cash flow and reducing tax frictions. But in 2025, the discussion is no longer just about “having IMMEX”, it is about running it with precision, because traceability, audits, and documentation discipline are rising alongside volume.

The size of the ecosystem makes that clear. In October 2025, INEGI reported 6,522 IMMEX establishments, including 5,225 manufacturing sites and 1,297 non manufacturing sites (agriculture, fishing, trade, services). Total employment reached 3,198,516 people, and monthly revenues totaled MXN 730,001 million, with 60.6% linked to foreign markets. At that scale, small recurring errors stop being “minor”, they become liabilities.

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More than a fiscal advantage

In practice, IMMEX directly shapes logistics operations. Every temporary import, transformation, transfer, and return must reconcile with inventory records and documentary evidence. When it does not, the issue spills beyond the trade compliance team into production, warehousing, finance, and governance. IMMEX shifts from advantage to operational risk, because the company starts operating with balances “the system believes” rather than balances it can actually prove.

This becomes even more sensitive when companies rely on related schemes involving IVA (Impuesto al Valor Agregado, Value Added Tax) and IEPS (Impuesto Especial sobre Producción y Servicios, Excise Tax), where inventory discipline becomes a condition for continuity. In real terms, IMMEX is not a permit you file away, it is a daily operating system.

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Inventory is the compliance engine

IMMEX compliance is built on inventory traceability. Every temporarily imported input must be traceable through export, change of regime, authorized destruction, virtual transfer, or another compliant outcome. In high volume operations with thousands of daily movements, manual controls do not scale. Errors do.

In 2025, the technical expectation is explicit in Annex 24 (Anexo 24 of the General Foreign Trade Rules) published by SAT. It defines the minimum data requirements for an automated inventory control system, including catalogs, modules, reporting, and discharge methods for temporarily imported goods. For certified companies, the system must be updated within 48 hours after customs formalities are completed and must allow online access for the authority. That forces companies to treat control as a live system, not as a quarterly reconciliation exercise.

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Why risk concentrates in the same operational moments

Non compliance tends to concentrate where data continuity breaks. A common pattern is a physical versus system inventory gap that gets postponed. When corrections are delayed, the problem compounds: production consumes inputs that are not properly discharged, or the system discharges against the wrong customs entries. At scale, this can lead to negative balances, expired time limits, or discharges that cannot be demonstrated.

Returns and time limits are another pressure point. In complex networks, risk is often driven by coordination issues, materials moving across plants, poorly executed virtual transfers, or returns delayed by commercial decisions. When operational and fiscal teams do not reconcile frequently, the company discovers the mismatch only when it becomes expensive to fix.

Rising enforcement and scrutiny are also visible in recent policy moves. In 2025, Mexico’s decision to impose countervailing duties on Chinese footwear included public discussion around “technical smuggling” concerns, and it was reported that large volumes of footwear imports were made under IMMEX and that the program was excluded from certain benefits in that context. The message to the sector is straightforward: compliance quality and proof matter as much as production output.

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Operational integration is the real safeguard

IMMEX is not owned by tax or trade teams alone. Warehousing, production, logistics, systems, and finance must work under the same rules and the same data. When information flows in silos, the program becomes vulnerable even in experienced exporters.

INEGI data shows why daily governance matters: in October 2025, IMMEX establishments reported 657.9 million hours worked and average real monthly pay of MXN 22,874 for directly hired personnel. That scale requires consistent routines, validations, and frequent reconciliations, not end of year cleanups.

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Compliance is not only about avoiding penalties, it is about keeping operations uninterrupted

A well run IMMEX program allows companies to scale, serve international customers, and remain competitive. A poorly managed IMMEX program becomes a recurring risk source, creating gaps, late fixes, complex audits, and reactive decisions that drain leadership time and operational capacity.

In 2025, the competitive edge is not simply holding the program, it is proving control. When inventory is traceable, data is consistent, and teams work from the same operational truth, IMMEX performs as intended: as a platform for growth, not as a pending contingency.

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