We advise our clients to achieve expansion beyond their borders within a framework of legal certainty.

The International Trade and Customs Law practice area of SMPS Legal focuses on providing its clients with comprehensive advice, based on the mastery of national and international regulatory frameworks, helping them to operate their cross-border businesses under the most efficient conditions and to avoid contingencies in their operations.

What makes our professional team unique is its mastery of this practice from a domestic, regional and international perspective.

Our professional team has experience working both in government trade agencies and private practice, as well as professional experience at the headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, providing legal advice to the panels that resolve international trade disputes. 

As a result, our team is familiar with the domestic legislation on international trade and the framework of international law applicable to this area, including the free trade agreements (FTAs) and WTO agreements signed by Mexico. This allows us to have an exhaustive and panoramic view to fully assist our clients.

Supported by the firm’s broad practice areas, we provide our international clients with soft-landing capabilities, as Mexico is uniquely positioned in the context of recent nearshoring trend due to its geographical location and network of FTAs.

Our team specializes in providing the following services:

• Consulting: We provide consulting services in all International Trade and Customs Law matters, such as: import regimes, tariff classification, customs valuation, taxes and obligations in import and export, non-tariff regulations and restrictions, among others.
• International Trade Audits: We represent our clients in audits performed by tax and customs authorities. We also carry out preventive audit services organized by our professional team to analyze our clients’ compliance with their international trade obligations and identify areas for improvement in their day-to-day commercial operations.
• Manufacturing and export incentive programs: We advise our clients on how to take advantage of different manufacturing and export promotion programs, such as: the Program for the Promotion of the Manufacturing, Maquila and Export Services Industry (IMMEX, for its acronym in Spanish), the Sectorial Promotion Programs (PROSEC, for its acronym in Spanish), tax refund mechanism (Drawback), temporary regimes, Rule Eight, among others.
• Free Trade Agreements (FTA): We advise our clients to take advantage of the benefits of the FTAs network signed by Mexico, such as: tariff reductions and rules of origin, among others.
• Administrative and constitutional litigation: We represent our clients in proceedings initiated by administrative authorities through the filing of revocation appeals, administrative litigation in the Federal Court of Administrative Justice and constitutional proceedings.
• Dispute resolution under FTA and WTO: We advise our clients on the use of dispute resolution mechanisms established in FTAs and WTO agreements.
• Unfair trade practices: We represent our clients in dumping, subsidies and safeguards proceedings with the domestic authority (International Trade Practices Unit of the Ministry of Economy), as well as in panels under FTA or in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.