The structure of Mexican exports continues to be led by manufactured products, which accounted for more than 85% of exports in 2021, according to information from the World Trade Organization (WTO).
While agricultural products accounted for 5.0% of Mexico‘s foreign sales, mineral (mainly petroleum) and extractive industry products contributed another 7.5%.
Mexico’s main manufactured exports continue to be machinery and electrical appliances, and transport equipment, which accounted for 58.8% of total exports in 2021.
Merchandise trade by main products, 2016 and 2021
Of particular importance are exports of machinery, apparatus and electrical material (34.8 percent of the total) and products for the automotive industry (24.0 percent).
Also the Maquiladora and Manufacturing Export Industry (IMMEX) is relevant for Mexican foreign trade, as almost 60 percent of exports in 2021 benefited from this regime.
Mexican exports
The composition of exports under the IMMEX regime continues to be skewed to manufacturing production, particularly machinery and electrical appliances and transport equipment, which combined, accounted for 70% of IMMEX exports in 2020 and 68.0% in 2021.
Conversely, imports have a similar structure to exports.
The main import products are machinery and electrical appliances (35.7% of imports in 2021), and transportation equipment (8.0% of total imports).
During the last five years, the evolution of Mexico’s merchandise trade showed a slowdown, followed by a contraction as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic and a recovery in 2021.
Reflecting this recovery, exports grew in current U.S. dollar terms between 2016 and 2021, reflecting, in particular, the continued contraction in oil exports.
Merchandise imports, on the other hand, contracted between 2016 and 2020, and rebounded considerably in 2021 (by almost one-third relative to 2020), bringing them 30.6% above the 2018 level in current U.S. dollar terms.
Merchandise exports in 2021 totaled US$494.225 billion (US$416.999 billion in 2020); while the level of imports was US$505.716 billion (US$382.986 billion in 2020).
