Guides · Updated August 25, 2026

Mexican customs and foreign trade glossary

If you import into Mexico or move freight through it, you will meet a vocabulary that does not translate cleanly. Your Mexican broker will write to you about the pedimento, the previo and the semáforo, and no US customs handbook will explain those. This glossary keeps the Spanish term as you will actually see it on the documents, and explains in English what it means and why it matters to you.

One timing note: a major reform to the Mexican Customs Law took effect on January 1, 2026, with some articles phased in afterwards. Several entries below reflect it, so if you learned this vocabulary a few years ago, a couple of things have moved.

A

• Aduana: a customs office or port of entry. Mexico operates land border, seaport and inland customs offices, and each one has its own rhythm, hours and bottlenecks. The big ones are covered in Mexico's main customs offices.
• Agencia aduanal: a customs brokerage as a legal entity, authorized to provide clearance services. It operates under the license of one or more customs brokers attached to it.
• Agente aduanal: the licensed customs broker, an individual authorized by the government to clear goods on behalf of third parties. They sign the pedimento and answer for what it declares. Since the 2026 reform their liability toward the tax authority is broader and more direct than it used to be.
• ANAM: Agencia Nacional de Aduanas de México, the national customs agency that runs the ports of entry. That function used to sit inside the SAT; today ANAM handles operations while the SAT keeps revenue collection and the registries.
• Apoderado aduanal: an individual designated by a company to clear that company's own goods, without holding a broker license. The figure spent years in legal limbo and the 2026 reform regulated it expressly again.
• Arancel: the duty payable on importing (rarely, exporting) a good. It can be a percentage of customs value, a fixed amount per unit, or a mix. It follows directly from the tariff code.
• Aviso consolidado: the notice covering each individual shipment when you operate under a consolidated pedimento. It lets each load cross on its own and be closed out with all the others in a single declaration at the end of the period. Heavily used by maquiladora manufacturing on the northern border.

B and C

• Cadena original: literally the original string. It is the pedimento data arranged in a defined sequence that feeds the digital signature validating the operation. It is what makes an electronic pedimento verifiable.
• Candado: the numbered security seal that closes the container or the trailer. Its number is declared and checked against the physical seal. If it arrives broken or does not match, an incident is raised and the cargo stops.
• Carta porte: the tax complement that must accompany the transfer invoice whenever goods move inside Mexican territory. It states origin, destination, carrier, route and cargo. Filling it out wrong is one of the most common roadside fines, and it is your Mexican carrier's problem that becomes your delay.
• Certificado de origen: proof of where the goods were produced, used to claim preferential duty under a trade agreement such as the USMCA (called T-MEC in Mexico). Without it you pay the general rate even if the product would have qualified.
• CFDI: Comprobante Fiscal Digital por Internet, the Mexican electronic invoice. It shows up twice in trade: the CFDI with a foreign trade complement for exports, and the transfer CFDI with carta porte for domestic movement.
• Clasificación arancelaria: tariff classification, the technical exercise of deciding which code a good falls under. It is the most expensive decision in the whole clearance, because duties, permits, standards and penalties all hang off it.
• Conocimiento de embarque: the bill of lading. Issued by the ocean carrier, it evidences the transport contract and title to the cargo. No released BL, no container release. The air equivalent is the guía aérea, the air waybill.
• Contenedor: shipping container, 20 or 40 foot, with high cube, reefer, open top and flat rack variants. Port traffic is measured in TEU, a 20 foot equivalent unit.
• Cuenta aduanera: a mechanism by which certain importers deposit duties or guarantees with authorized institutions instead of paying them outright. Used mostly with estimated prices and with regimes that allow later recovery of the tax.

D through G

• Demoras: demurrage, the carrier's charge for holding its container beyond free time. Do not confuse it with almacenaje, storage billed by the terminal for the space occupied. During a long red light, both clocks run at once.
• Depósito fiscal: a regime that lets you store foreign goods in an authorized general deposit warehouse without paying duties until you withdraw them. Useful for financing inventory and for pulling stock out in batches.
• Despacho aduanero: customs clearance, the full set of acts and formalities to bring goods in or out. It begins when the pedimento is transmitted and ends when the cargo is released. How long it takes is covered in how long customs clearance takes.
• DODA: Documento de Operación para Despacho Aduanero. The QR coded document presented at the gate to trigger the traffic light. It does not replace the pedimento, it accompanies it. Full detail in what a DODA is.
• DTA: two different things sharing initials. Derecho de Trámite Aduanero is the customs processing fee paid on the pedimento. Dispositivo Tecnológico Aduanero is the chipped radiofrequency card carriers use to cross in the automated PITA lanes.
• Encargo conferido: the electronic authorization by which an importer empowers a broker to act on its behalf. Without a live encargo nothing can be cleared, and it is one of the first things to jam when you switch brokers.
• Exportación: export, the exit of national or nationalized goods. Most Mexican exports carry no duty, but the pedimento and the paperwork exist all the same.
• Fracción arancelaria: the eight digit tariff code from the Mexican tariff schedule. Since 2020 it is followed by two more digits, the NICO, which refine the identification for statistics and control. Note that it is eight digits, not the ten of the US HTS, so a straight copy from your US entry will not do.

I through L

• IGI: Impuesto General de Importación, the formal name of the import duty. Its export twin is the IGE.
• IMMEX: the program letting a company temporarily import inputs, machinery and components to transform or repair and then export, with tax benefits. It is the backbone of Mexican export manufacturing, and it comes with strict inventory control obligations.
• Importación: import. It can be definitive (the goods stay), temporary (they enter and must leave within a term) or under one of the special regimes.
• Incoterms: the International Chamber of Commerce rules defining who pays what and where risk transfers in a cross border sale. The current edition is Incoterms 2020, with eleven terms including EXW, FOB, CIF, DAP and DDP. Selling DDP into Mexico means you take on the Mexican import obligations, which is a bigger commitment than it sounds.
• IVA de importación: Mexican value added tax on imports. It is computed on customs value plus duty plus the other charges, not on the invoice value alone. It is usually the largest single line on the pedimento.
• Ley Aduanera: the Mexican Customs Law, governing entry and exit of goods, clearance, regimes and the authority's powers. Its most recent reform was published in November 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026, with staggered articles.

M through P

• Manifiesto de valor: the value declaration in which the importer sets out and supports how customs value was built. It is not transmitted with the pedimento, but the authority can demand it, and not having one is a routine audit finding.
• Mecanismo de selección automatizado (MSA): the automated selection mechanism that decides, when the DODA is scanned, whether the shipment passes or goes to inspection. It is automatic and nobody at the gate influences it. Explained in depth in the customs traffic light.
• NOM: Norma Oficial Mexicana, a mandatory Mexican technical standard. It can require labeling, certification or laboratory testing before goods are admitted. The commercial labeling and consumer information standards are the ones that stop the most shipments, and they are the single most common surprise for first time US shippers.
• Número de integración: the unique identifier generated when the operation is transmitted, printed on the DODA. It is the key you use to check status with the SAT. Where to find it and how to read it, in the integration number guide.
• Padrón de importadores: the importers registry kept by the SAT. You must be enrolled and active in it to import into Mexico at all. There is also a sector specific registry for sensitive goods such as chemicals, precursors, firearms, footwear, textiles and steel, with extra requirements.
• PAMA: Procedimiento Administrativo en Materia Aduanera, the administrative proceeding opened when the authority finds a serious irregularity and seizes the goods as a precaution. It involves deadlines, evidence and lawyers. It is not resolved with a phone call.
• Patente aduanal: the personal, non transferable license that allows someone to act as a customs broker. Since the 2026 reform it runs for twenty years and can be extended if the request is filed in the final year and the requirements are still met.
• Pedimento: the Mexican customs declaration, and the document that matters for tax purposes. It carries everything: goods, tariff codes, values, duties, regime and party data. The DODA is only the gate pass. The difference is laid out in pedimento versus DODA.
• PITA: Proyecto de Integración Tecnológica Aduanera, the modernization of border crossings with cameras, sensors, radiofrequency readers and paperless lanes, so the vehicle identifies itself as it drives through.
• Prevalidación: the electronic pre check of pedimento data performed by an authorized entity before transmission to the authority. It filters out syntax and catalog errors, and it is billed per operation.
• Previo: prior examination of the goods. A physical review the importer or broker performs before declaring, to find out what is actually in the box. It is a right, not an obligation. When it pays for itself is covered in what a previo is.

R through Z

• Recinto fiscal: the area under direct customs authority control, where the authority handles, stores and guards goods.
• Recinto fiscalizado: a bonded facility, the private warehouse or terminal holding a concession to provide those services inside or next to the recinto fiscal. This is who bills you for storage and handling, and who schedules your previo.
• Reconocimiento aduanero: the physical and documentary inspection the authority performs when the light turns red. It compares what was declared against what is in the box. What to do when it happens, in what to do when you get a customs inspection.
• Régimen aduanero: the customs regime, the legal destination you assign to the goods. The main families are definitive, temporary, fiscal deposit, transit, processing in a bonded facility, and strategic bonded facility. Duties, deadlines and obligations all follow from it.
• Regularización: the procedure to bring into compliance goods that entered irregularly or that overstayed a temporary import term. You pay what was owed, plus inflation adjustment and surcharges, and file a regularization pedimento. It is the standard fix for a temporary import that quietly expired.
• RRNA: regulaciones y restricciones no arancelarias, non tariff regulations and restrictions. Everything that is not a tax but still gates entry: prior permits, quotas, sanitary notices, phytosanitary certificates, NOMs and sector authorizations. They attach to the tariff code.
• Semáforo fiscal: the everyday name for the MSA. Green is free release, red is physical inspection. There is no yellow.
• TIGIE: the Mexican tariff schedule, the official catalog of codes and duty rates. It is updated periodically, so a code that was valid last year may have been split, merged or retired.
• Tránsito aduanero: bonded transit, moving goods under customs control from one customs office to another without paying duties at the point of entry. Common for moving cargo from a seaport to an inland customs office.
• Transmisión: the electronic filing of the pedimento data and its annexes to the authority's system. This is the moment the operation officially exists and the integration number is generated.
• Valor en aduana: customs value, the base for computing duties. As a general rule it is transaction value, meaning the price paid, plus the additions: freight, insurance, packing, commissions and royalties up to the point of entry into Mexico.
• VUCEM: Ventanilla Única de Comercio Exterior Mexicana, the single window where permits, registries, document digitization and much of the paperwork are handled. In 2026 a decree was published transforming it into VUTCE under a new operating authority, so during the transition you will hear both names used.

How to use this glossary

If you are new to Mexico, skip the memorizing and learn the chain instead. You classify the goods into a tariff code; that code tells you the duties and the non tariff regulations; with those you build and transmit the pedimento; the transmission produces the integration number and the DODA; and the DODA gets scanned at the port of entry so the traffic light can decide whether you pass or get inspected. Everything else branches off that trunk.

If you already ship into Mexico, the value here is in the edges: recinto fiscal versus recinto fiscalizado, demoras versus almacenaje, the two things called DTA. That is where hours and money get lost, because two parties use the same word for different things and neither notices. When you are looking at an actual acknowledgment, how to read a DODA PDF walks you through it field by field.