Manufacturing exports and trade policy in Mexico
The share of manufacturing exports in Mexico‘s total product exports was 90.37% last November, its highest level since October 2020, according to data from the Bank of Mexico.
Globally, Mexico ranks 13th among the largest exporters of products, considering 2022 statistics.
In 2023, Mexico displaced China as the leading exporter of goods to the United States, which is, in turn, the world’s largest importer of goods.
To the entire world, Mexican product exports totaled US$543.762 billion in the first 11 months of 2023, up 2.9% year-on-year.
Manufacturing exports
Mexico has a robust manufacturing industry and is a major exporter of manufactured goods globally.
Major Mexican exports include automobiles and auto parts, telephones and computers, medical equipment and appliances, tomatoes and avocados, beer and tequila, petroleum, gold and silver.
According to a World Trade Organization (WTO) report, the objectives of Mexico’s trade policy are to promote foreign trade, defend its commercial interests and negotiate, implement and administer trade agreements; the use of trade as an instrument to reduce poverty and socioeconomic inequalities has not yielded the expected results due to the excessive concentration of export activities in certain goods produced in a limited number of regions of the country.
Trade strategy
To promote export diversification, one of the objectives of trade policy is to attract investment to sectors and regions that have historically had little participation in exports and to continue maximizing the benefits granted under existing incentive programs, specifically export promotion regimes.
As part of its trade strategy, Mexico is also promoting the empowerment of women.
The scope of the trade policy will also depend on the development of an adequate transportation and logistics infrastructure.
The maximum share of manufacturing exports in Mexico’s total product exports occurred in September 1998, when this indicator was 91.84 percent.
Mexico has a strategic geographic location, sharing borders with the United States to the north and being a gateway to Latin America. This has contributed to its role as an important participant in international trade.
