Mexico‘s National Customs Agency (ANAM) began the process to cancel five customs agencies, informed the Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, on Monday.
These customs agencies are being investigated for their relationship with alleged illegal imports made by eight IMMEX companies for 24 billion pesos.
Ebrard indicated that of these eight companies, five produce textiles and three manufacture footwear.
Customs agencies
“There are five customs agencies in the process of cancellation right now, just for those eight companies, because what is the point of just canceling the permit to the company (IMMEX), if we do not freeze the accounts, if we are not going to see who the beneficiary is and everything I just told you?”, commented the official.
Since 2022, customs clearance for the import and export of goods has been carried out before ANAM. Despite the institutional change, the requirements for importing and exporting, as well as the procedures for determining the customs value of imported goods, have not undergone substantial modifications since 2017.
Ebrard referred that the head of ANAM, Rafael Mollinedo, has personally verified which “customs agencies will have their licenses cancelled.”
IMMEX Companies
The IMMEX program offers benefits to producers and companies that export. It allows goods to be imported temporarily without paying taxes or countervailing duties. However, they must be used in products destined for export.
However, the government detected abuses. During a press conference, Marcelo Ebrard informed that eight companies pretended to import textiles and footwear for export. But in reality they did not do so. As a result, their IMMEX program was cancelled. Their accounts were also frozen and they are now facing an investigation for fraud. These companies imported 24 billion pesos.
In addition, other similar cases were reviewed. Some companies also abused the temporary import scheme. For this reason, controls were intensified.
In response, President Claudia Sheinbaum called a meeting for May 14. More than 200 companies from the textile sector will participate. The objective is to promote direct trade agreements.
With these actions, the government seeks to strengthen the domestic market. It also wants to increase competitiveness, combat smuggling and recover jobs. Since the implementation of these measures, textile imports have fallen. Thus, the loss of 80,000 jobs in the textile industry is expected to be reversed.