In the last four years, Mexico has tripled its exports of technology, computer servers, and laptops to the United States, from $3 billion to $10 billion per month, wresting the lead from China as a supplier in the U.S. import market, noted Ernesto Stein, Professor of Public Policy at the School of Government and Public Transformation of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM).
Technological and artificial intelligence infrastructure has become Mexico’s most important export sector to the United States, reaching $85 billion last year and maintaining an uninterrupted growth trend through 2026, driven by the relocation of companies (nearshoring and friendshoring).
During the keynote address, “SMEs Nearshoring in Turbulent Times,” at the Hidden Champions International Meetings event, organized by Coparmex, the distinguished professor of Public Policy at Tec de Monterrey explained that most of this volume corresponds to an assembly model for multinational giants like Foxconn, Wistron, Celestica, and Lenovo, which manufacture in Mexico but use mostly imported components from Asia.
The expert in economic development and international trade highlighted that the computer and electronics sector “became the most important export sector to the United States, reaching $85 billion last year, and it’s a sector that continues to grow; it hasn’t stopped. Therefore, I think there’s a huge opportunity.”
However, Ernesto Stein warned that to prevent Mexico from becoming merely a transit point, there is a need to gradually replicate the automotive industry model through new rules of origin.
“The rule for data processing equipment is very lax. A server manufacturer (a computer system that stores and processes data) can import all its components from China as long as they are from a different four-digit tariff line than the server itself, and export them while complying with the rules of origin,” he noted.
The professor from Tec de Monterrey proposed a gradual approach that would require, for example, a 5% Regional Value Content (RVC) by 2030 and 10% by 2035 in the electronics industry. This would allow billions of dollars to be channeled directly to local suppliers and companies. “With this, we gradually increase that value; well, that’s one way to increase, let’s say, the national and regional content in these exports. Without a change of this kind, corporations will continue importing from where they are accustomed to importing from, which are their Asian suppliers,” he warned.
Source: eleconomista
