Mexico Imports & Exports: Trade Profile & Partners

Mexico became the United States’ number-one trading partner in 2024, surpassing both Canada and China. According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, two-way US-Mexico trade hit $935.1 billion that year. If you handle cross-border shipments, imports, or exports, that figure reshapes your supply chain calculus. The trouble is that most online sources still rely on 2022 or 2023 data, which misses the full 2024 picture and the 2025 tariff shifts that followed.

This guide gives you the latest numbers on Mexico imports and exports, the top products moving in both directions, Mexico’s key trading partners, and what USMCA and recent tariff policy mean for US importers. If you file ISF (Importer Security Filing 10+2), AMS (Automated Manifest System), or AES (Automated Export System) submissions for Mexico-bound or Mexico-origin cargo, Artemus Transportation Solutions built its software around exactly this lane.

Mexico Imports and Exports: An Overview

In 2024, Mexico exported $669.3 billion in goods and imported $571.8 billion, according to World’s Top Exports data sourced from the International Trade Centre. That gave Mexico a goods trade surplus of roughly $97.5 billion.

The United States bought around 80% of Mexico’s exports and supplied about 43% of its imports in 2024 per USTR. Mexico’s top exports are vehicles, computers and machinery, and electrical equipment. Its top imports are electrical machinery, machinery, and refined petroleum. The relationship runs under USMCA, which replaced NAFTA in July 2020 and governs most tariff-free trade across the three North American economies.

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Mexico’s Trade Profile in 2024

Mexico is one of the most open economies in the world, with goods trade worth roughly $1.24 trillion in 2024. That scale ranks it among the top 15 trading nations globally. Manufacturing drives the trade engine: finished cars, trucks, computers, and electronics dominate the export mix, while imported raw materials and components feed Mexican factories that supply the US market.

World’s Top Exports reports that Mexico’s export value grew 12.9% from 2023 to 2024, while imports dipped 4.5% over the same period. The result was a larger trade surplus and a stronger overall external account. Per Santander Trade, foreign trade now accounts for more than half of Mexico’s GDP, which makes it one of the most trade-dependent economies in the OECD.

Where Mexico Ranks Globally?

Mexico sits inside the top 15 trading nations by total goods trade, with especially strong rankings in vehicles (top 4 globally), automotive parts, and consumer electronics. Proximity to the US market, competitive labor costs, and a deep bench of free-trade agreements have kept Mexico competitive even as Asian manufacturers scale up.

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What Are the Major Exports of Mexico?

Mexico’s top 10 export categories accounted for roughly 81% of total export value in 2024. Manufactured goods dominate, followed by a growing agricultural slice. All figures below are from World’s Top Exports, sourced from International Trade Centre Trade Map data.

Top Export Categories (2024)

1. Vehicles: $168.4 Billion

Vehicles are Mexico’s single biggest export, with cars alone worth $67.7 billion and trucks worth $42.8 billion in 2024. Ford, GM, Stellantis (Chrysler), Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, Audi, BMW, and Kia all run production plants in Mexico. Most output heads to the US under USMCA rules of origin, which require 75% North American content for tariff-free access.

2. Machinery Including Computers: $129.8 Billion

This category grew a remarkable 38.9% year over year in 2024. Computers and optical readers alone hit $59.2 billion (up 101.4%), making Mexico a serious player in the global PC and server supply chain. Automobile parts and accessories added another $42.4 billion. Both reflect the nearshoring wave moving final assembly closer to the US market.

3. Electrical Machinery & Equipment: $114.4 Billion

Guadalajara, often called Mexico’s Silicon Valley, anchors this export category. Insulated wire and cable ($18.7 billion), smartphones ($16.7 billion), and TV receivers and monitors ($11.5 billion) lead the sub-list. Mexico ships most of these finished goods north, where they feed US retail, consumer tech, and industrial supply chains.

4. Optical, Technical & Medical Apparatus: $36.9 Billion

Medical devices have quietly become one of Mexico’s strongest growth categories, up 34.9% year over year. Border cities like Tijuana and Mexicali now host major medtech clusters producing surgical tools, diagnostic equipment, orthopedic appliances, and electro-medical devices for brands serving US hospitals.

5. Mineral Fuels Including Oil: $27.4 Billion

Crude oil and refined petroleum exports were Mexico’s only top-10 category to shrink in 2024, down 16%. Pemex (the state oil company) has faced declining output for years, and Mexico now imports substantial volumes of refined fuel while exporting mostly crude. The US is the primary buyer.

6. Beverages & Spirits: $14.8 Billion

Mexican beer (Corona, Modelo, Dos Equis, Tecate) and tequila lead this category. Malt beer alone was $6.8 billion in exports, and distilled spirits added another $6.4 billion (up 48.6% YoY). The US is by far the largest buyer, and Mexican brands now outsell domestic US beers in several categories.

7. Agricultural Products: Fruits, Vegetables & More

Fruits and nuts ($12.9 billion) and fresh vegetables ($11.8 billion) give Mexico a massive ag footprint. Avocados, tomatoes, berries, and peppers dominate. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, Mexico supplies roughly one-third of all US horticultural imports and is the US’s largest source of fresh vegetables year-round.

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What Does Mexico Import?

Mexico imported $571.8 billion in goods during 2024. The top 10 import categories made up nearly 71% of that total. Imports fuel the manufacturing base, so most top categories are production inputs rather than consumer goods. Figures are from World’s Top Exports.

Top Import Categories (2024)

1. Electrical Machinery & Equipment: $107.8 Billion

Integrated circuits ($20 billion), smartphones ($13.5 billion), and low-voltage switches ($6.9 billion) top this list. Many of these components land in Mexico, get assembled into finished electronics, and ship back out as exports, a textbook pattern of intra-industry trade.

2. Machinery Including Computers: $96.1 Billion

Computer parts and accessories were up 49.6% year over year at $16.4 billion. Mexican factories need constant inflows of pumps, valves, engines, and industrial machinery to keep assembly lines running. Germany, the US, and Japan are the main suppliers.

3. Vehicles: $62.6 Billion

Yes, Mexico imports vehicles too. Automobile parts and accessories ($34.1 billion) are the largest sub-category, along with imported cars for domestic sale ($16.7 billion) and trucks ($5.2 billion, up 51.2%). Mexican assembly plants often import body stampings, transmissions, and specialty parts from the US and Asia.

4. Mineral Fuels: $43.1 Billion

Refined petroleum is the big one here: $34.8 billion in processed petroleum oils, almost all from US Gulf Coast refineries. Mexico’s refining capacity hasn’t kept pace with demand, so the country exports crude and imports gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Petroleum gases added another $6.8 billion.

5. Plastics & Plastic Articles: $30.1 Billion

Polymers, resins, and packaging plastics feed Mexican manufacturing across food, electronics, automotive, and consumer goods. The US is the largest supplier.

6. Iron, Steel, Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals: Combined $47 Billion

Iron and steel imports fell 26.3% in 2024 as construction slowed, while pharmaceuticals grew 12.8%, a signal of rising healthcare demand. Organic chemicals, fertilizers, and industrial chemicals round out the production-input side of Mexico’s import basket.

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Mexico’s Top Trading Partners

Mexico’s trade is heavily concentrated in North America, especially the United States. But the full picture shows meaningful trade with Asia (especially for imports) and smaller but growing flows to Europe and Latin America.

Where Mexico’s Exports Go?

Latest country-specific data shows the following breakdown for Mexico’s export destinations:

From a continental view, 86.2% of Mexican exports stay in North America. Only 4.9% goes to Asia and 4.7% to Europe. That concentration is a feature, not a bug. It is exactly what USMCA and NAFTA were built to produce.

Where Mexico’s Imports Come From?

The import side shows more diversification, thanks to Mexico’s dependence on Asian components for its export manufacturing:

Asia supplies 37.8% of Mexico’s imports, a far larger share than on the export side. China alone sends close to one-fifth of everything Mexico imports, largely electronic components, machinery parts, and consumer goods that feed both domestic demand and Mexico’s export factories.

Why does the US dominate both sides?

Three factors lock the US-Mexico trade lane in place: shared borders with more than 45 commercial crossings, an integrated auto and electronics supply chain built over 30+ years of NAFTA/USMCA, and cost advantages that make Mexican labor roughly one-sixth as expensive as US labor for equivalent manufacturing tasks. No other trading pair comes close to this level of integration.

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Nearshoring: Why Mexico Is Gaining Manufacturing Share?

Mexico’s export value jumped from $417 billion in 2020 to $669.3 billion in 2024, a 60.5% increase in five years. That growth tracks almost perfectly with the post-pandemic push by US companies to move production out of Asia and closer to home. The trend has a name: nearshoring.

What’s Driving the Shift

US companies rethought their Asian supply chains after pandemic shutdowns, Red Sea shipping disruptions, and rising geopolitical tension with China. Mexico offered the closest large-scale alternative: same time zone as most of the US, 48-72 hour truck delivery to Texas and California, competitive wages, and USMCA tariff coverage. Foreign direct investment into Mexican manufacturing hit record levels in 2023 and 2024.

Which Industries Are Leading?

Automotive, electronics, medical devices, and aerospace are the four fastest-moving sectors. Tesla announced a gigafactory in Nuevo León. Major electronics contract manufacturers expanded facilities in Jalisco and Chihuahua. Medical device clusters in Tijuana and Juárez continue to grow. Even furniture and appliance makers, categories that had largely fled to Asia in the 2000s, are returning.

The Challenges

Nearshoring isn’t frictionless. Mexican wages in key manufacturing hubs have risen sharply, water shortages in the north threaten factory expansion, and electricity grid constraints have delayed some industrial projects. Cartel violence in specific regions remains a real security concern for freight. None of these problems has slowed the overall trend, but they shape where new plants actually get built.

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How Artemus Simplifies US-Mexico Trade Compliance?

Managing ISF, AMS, AES, and e-Manifest filings across the Mexican border by hand leaves too much room for error, and every error has a price tag. Artemus Transportation Solutions has been building purpose-built trade compliance software for exactly this workflow since 1999, with AMS in production for over 25 years and ISF software in the market since 2008.

The platform covers the full US-Mexico compliance stack: ISF 10+2 filing for ocean imports, AMS filing for inbound cargo, AES filing for US exports headed south, and Customs Broker Software to manage entries and classifications. 

The system validates entries before transmission, flags common errors (wrong HTS codes, mismatched party data, timing violations), and keeps an audit trail that CBP can accept.

FAQs

1. What is Mexico’s biggest export?

Vehicles are Mexico’s single biggest export category, worth $168.4 billion in 2024, about 25.2% of total exports. Cars alone accounted for $67.7 billion, with trucks adding another $42.8 billion. The US is the primary destination, since most vehicles built in Mexican plants are specifically configured for the North American market.

2. Who is Mexico’s largest trading partner?

The United States. Roughly 80% of Mexican goods exports go to the US, and about 43% of Mexican imports come from the US. Total US-Mexico goods and services trade hit $935.1 billion in 2024, making the US Mexico’s dominant partner by a wide margin. China is second on the import side but trails far behind.

3. Does Mexico import or export more?

Mexico exports more than it imports. In 2024, exports totaled $669.3 billion against $571.8 billion in imports, producing a goods trade surplus of roughly $97.5 billion. The country’s export economy is powered by vehicles, machinery, and electronics manufactured for the US market.

4. What does Mexico import from the US?

Top US exports to Mexico include electrical machinery, machinery, energy products (refined petroleum and natural gas), vehicles, plastics, and over $30 billion in agricultural goods. Corn, pork, dairy, soybeans, poultry, and beef are the primary components of the agricultural mix. Industrial supplies and capital goods together made up nearly $276 billion in 2024, according to USAFacts.

5. What proportion of Mexico’s exports are directed towards the United States?

Roughly 79.6% of Mexican goods exports went to the United States in the latest reporting year. No other country comes close: Canada is second at 3%, and China third at 1.54%. This concentration has been stable for over two decades and is the defining feature of Mexican trade.

6. How much trade happens between the US and Mexico annually?

In 2024, total US-Mexico goods and services trade reached $935.1 billion, up 5.5% from 2023. Through the first three quarters of 2025, goods trade alone hit $872.8 billion, suggesting full-year 2025 totals will exceed 2024 once services are added in.

7. What role does USMCA play in Mexico’s trade?

USMCA replaced NAFTA in July 2020 and sets the tariff, rules-of-origin, labor, environmental, and dispute-settlement framework for nearly all US-Mexico trade. Goods that qualify under USMCA rules of origin move tariff-free. Goods that don’t qualify (or fall into categories like recently tariffed steel and aluminum) face regular duties. The 2026 USMCA review is expected to revisit several provisions.

8. Is Mexico or China the larger US trading partner?

Mexico. In 2024, Mexico was the #1 US trading partner in goods and services combined, at $935.1 billion in two-way trade. China fell to third place on the goods side that year, behind both Mexico and Canada. The gap has widened in 2025 as new US tariffs hit Chinese imports harder than Mexican ones.

Conclusion

Mexico’s place in global trade has fundamentally shifted. With $669.3 billion in exports and $571.8 billion in imports in 2024, it is now the largest trading partner of the world’s largest economy. Nearshoring has accelerated Mexican manufacturing growth, USMCA governs the mechanics, and recent tariff changes have made compliance planning more valuable than it’s been in years.

For US importers and customs brokers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: the Mexican lane is bigger than the Chinese one now, and it’s regulated by a different set of agreements and filings. ISF, AMS, AES, and USMCA certification are the four pillars, and getting any of them wrong creates penalties, delays, or both.

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