Improving Mexico’s highway infrastructure will be key in 2026 to boost foreign trade, where two out of every three exports are transported by road and half of imports follow the same route, experts and representatives of exporting companies agreed.
“More than two-thirds of Mexico’s exports go via trucking, which means we need to invest more in highways, especially those leading to our main destination, the United States,” emphasized Diego López Tamayo, Senior Economist in Microeconomic Analysis at BBVA Research.
Yolot Guadalquivir, Vice President of Public Relations for the National Association of Importers and Exporters of the Mexican Republic (ANIERM), concurred, raising the need to expand investments throughout the entire logistics chain.
“We see Mexico as a strategic hub in several sectors, such as automotive, but we are being hampered in logistics, which is crucial for the entire foreign trade cycle to fulfill its strategy,” he explained at the discussion “Mexico Facing 2026: Challenges for Foreign Trade,” organized by the fintech platform Mundi.
For his part, Carlos Missirian, from Mundi, emphasized that “heading into 2026, exporting companies will face challenges in infrastructure, security, energy, and logistics, in an environment that will continue to be pressured, but with less volatility.”
According to the Federal Expenditure Budget for fiscal year 2026, published on November 21 in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), the amount allocated to the Multi-Year Program for the Conservation of the Federal Toll-Free Highway Network will be 27.72 billion pesos, 20.8% less than the 35 billion pesos allocated this year.
Given this situation, Susana Duque, Director General of the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology (COMCE), emphasized that, since highways are the main means of moving goods within and outside the country, the challenge for next year will be improving their infrastructure.
“Companies that come to invest seek to manufacture, establish themselves, produce, and use Mexico as an export platform to the United States; therefore, one of the biggest challenges is undoubtedly logistics and everything related to it, such as highways,” she pointed out.
According to international trade experts, improving highways through increased investment in infrastructure and security will benefit Mexico during the renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), making it more attractive to companies in the North American region.
“There are indeed challenges in security and infrastructure—from ports and highways to customs—but Mexico remains attractive for investment due to its proximity to the United States,” emphasized Álvaro Vértiz, Head of Latin America & the Caribbean at DGA Group.
He added that the Mexico Plan, presented by President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, aims to address the shortcomings in highway and logistics infrastructure to strengthen national manufacturing and position the country as an attractive destination for investment.
In the lead-up to the USMCA renegotiation, the three countries have begun public consultations, and in Mexico’s case, the trucking industry has been a key player, handling seven out of every ten dollars of merchandise value, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
In the first half of the year, trucking companies—led by their drivers—moved 58 out of every 100 dollars of Mexican international trade. Specifically, they were responsible for transporting 69% of the value of exports and 48% of imports entering Mexico.
Source: tyt
