Mexico is planning to carry out a “cleaning” operation across the country to combat the flow of illegal merchandise entering the country mainly from China, the Mexican Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
The ministry would lead searches across all 32 Mexican states, including ports and airports, Mexican Minister of Economic Affairs Marcelo Ebrard said on Friday.
The move follows a raid on Thursday in which about 200 officials searched a shopping square in Mexico City known for selling Chinese goods. The government seized more than 260,000 items with an estimated value of 7.5 million pesos (US$368,089).
Photo: AP
“The searches will help determine the size of these illegal flows of goods entering the country,” said Luis Enrique Vazquez, technical secretary for the ministry’s foreign trade office.
“They will enable us to trace and quantify the volumes we are dealing with, that seem to be huge,” he added.
Vazquez declined to disclose when and where the next searches would be done, citing security reasons.
The US and Canada have voiced concerns that Mexico’s trade practices with China are not aligned with its North American allies. There has also been growing investor jitters after US president-elect Donald Trump last week announced his intention to impose tariffs on its neighbors, in an effort to pressure them to curb the flow of migrants and the entry of illegal drugs such as fentanyl.
Asked by reporters whether the move was a signal to Trump, Ebrard joked that he had not received a call from the US president-elect about the specific Mexico City mall that was raided.
Mexican authorities on Thursday’s search found an array of products, from screws to coffee machines, to toys and textiles. The objects for sale included items from Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Local chambers of commerce have also accused Chinese e-commerce platforms of bending rules to avoid taxes on their packages.
The Mexican Ministry of Economic Affairs is working with the country’s Ministry of Finance and tax body on a mechanism to ensure these platforms pay taxes, Vazquez said.
Mexico’s tax agency last month in a statement announced measures to increase control and monitoring of merchandise entering the country. Ensuring platforms pay taxes is the next step, Vazquez said.
The measures have been in the works for months, he said, as he denied that they were in response to pressure from the US, he said
“You can’t plan such operations in a matter of days over one remark. We’ve been planning this for months,” he said, adding that the move aims to guarantee better conditions for Mexico’s local industries.
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