We’re not a piñata, but we’re being treated like punching bags. Every other day, there’s a new complaint from the United States that the Mexican government must address. The most recent concerns the failure to combat piracy. Mexico has just been included on a blacklist compiled by the USTR, the highest foreign trade authority in the United States and the entity with which we must renegotiate the USMCA between now and 2026.
Piracy in Mexico will give the United States a pretext to hold us accountable on an issue where we haven’t done our homework. It adds to other issues that have marked the bilateral relationship in Trump’s first 100 days: tariffs, immigration, fentanyl, the water border treaty, and screwworm control, among others.
What are the piracy-related complaints? Mexico continues to have very high rates of copyright piracy and has failed to combat those who violate the law or compensate those who suffer losses due to bad practices, according to a report stamped with an eagle on the cover titled 2025 Special 301 Report.
Mexico’s violations include digital piracy and the manufacture and sale of counterfeit products, as well as medicines, according to the USTR. The U.S. authority’s complaints refer to the failure to comply with commitments agreed upon in the USMCA, but also to the persistence of long-standing bad practices. It is not surprising that there are accusations about the slowness and ineffectiveness of legal processes. It is striking that it includes a demand for an increase in the budget of the Mexican Institute of Intellectual Property. They mention the actions of Operation Cleanup, led by Marcelo Ebrard three months ago, but lament “that the presence of pirated and counterfeit products in the markets continues to be a concern.”
The description of the Mexican case takes up two pages, pages 59 and 60. It begins with what is happening with online music and movie piracy: “It is widespread and has increased as broadband access has grown,” it says, but it doesn’t include numbers that allow us to understand what “it is widespread and has increased” means. The variety of resources used for online piracy merits a detailed description in the report: direct downloads, peer-to-peer sending, use of devices or apps to illegally download signals, among others. “A barrier to effective prosecution is the requirement to demonstrate economic benefit and the presentation of physical evidence of the pirated material, even in cases where the piracy occurs online,” the report states.
In the case of “pirated” goods, the USTR states that Mexico “continues to suffer (so it says) from widespread importation, manufacturing, sale, and re-exportation of counterfeit goods.” He criticizes the Customs Administration for not having the ex officio authority to confiscate or destroy products without first notifying the Mexican Immigration and Customs Institute (IMPI) or the Attorney General’s Office. He expresses his annoyance that the secondary laws that should have strengthened the 2020 reforms to the Industrial Property Protection laws were not published.
For Mexico, this represents two pages of the 92-page report. This pair of pages compares to the 10 dedicated to China, which is identified as the main offender. The 301 Report for 2025 includes 26 countries on two lists: the Priority Watch List, which lists the most misbehaving countries, and the Watch List, which refers to those with “more manageable” anomalies. On the Priority Watch List, like an airplane, Mexico is accompanied by China, India, Russia, Venezuela, Indonesia, Argentina, and Chile. Canada, Colombia, Brazil, and Vietnam, among others, have been placed on the Watch List.
This is Mexico’s first time in this Priority Club. It could be a warning of how complicated the USMCA renegotiation will be, or it could be an opportunity to work seriously to resolve an issue that bothers Uncle Sam but is crippling thousands of Mexican businesses.
Source: eleconomista
