Mexico's foreign trade in the first half of 2023

Inegi reported this Thursday Mexico‘s foreign trade statistics for the first half of 2023, with a deficit of 6.344 billion dollars.

On the one hand, Mexican exports totaled 291,968.5 million dollars, this is an increase of 3.9% year-on-year.

On the other hand, imports to Mexico totaled 298,312.3 million dollars, an increase of 1.6% year-on-year.

What stands out in the context of these data? The trade war between the United States and China, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the appreciation of the peso against the dollar and the increase in the Federal Reserve‘s short-term interest rate from 5.1% to 5.3%, the highest level since 2001.

While Mexico’s oil exports fell 23.4% year-on-year, to 15,761.7 million dollars in the first half of the current year, non-oil foreign sales rose 6.1%, to 276,206.8 million dollars.

Within non-oil exports, the results were as follows: extractive exports totaled 4,989.5 million dollars (+9.1% year-on-year), agricultural exports amounted to 12,324.7 million dollars (+4.3%) and manufacturing exports totaled 258,892.5 million dollars (+6.1%).

As part of the highlights in foreign trade, on January 11, 2023, the panel overseeing a dispute between Mexico/Canada and the United States regarding the U.S. interpretation of certain requirements used to calculate the regional value content for passenger cars and light trucks under the USMCA rejected the U.S. view that the regional value content of a vehicle as a whole should be determined using the percentage of regional value content corresponding to each part of the vehicle that individually meets the regional content requirements.

Instead, the panel held that essential parts that have met the minimum percentage of regional content established in the USMCA will count as wholly «originating in the region» for purposes of calculating the regional content of the vehicle as a whole.

Foreign trade

Another important recent development occurred in mid-July, with the signing of the United Kingdom’s accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP).

With this, this trade bloc will be extended to Europe and for the first time will have a new non-founding member.

CPTPP is a Free Trade Agreement between Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.