Mexico and the United States have successfully reached an agreement to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement, as talks with Canada were halted.
The current version of the trade agreement with the American administration would double the value of goods exempt of taxes at importation, which could boost Mexican e-commerce substantially. The minimum duty-free shipment threshold would also be doubled, to 100 USD, benefitting express delivery companies and online retailers.
The new trade deal should increase the appeal of international marketplaces, as more American speciality goods are sold to Mexican customers. “Lowering trade barriers is critical to ... creating more access to goods for buyers on a global basis,” said Mike Dabbs, eBay’s senior director of government relations for the Americas, in a statement.
The online market in Mexico, Latin America’s second-largest economy, will likely reach 7 billion USD in 2018, according to market research firm Euromonitor International, though that figure represents a small fraction of total retail sales. In the current context, the Mexican e-commerce market is expected to double, reaching 14 billion USD, by 2022.