Mexico Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in mexico, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Trade Standards
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Overview

The Government of Mexico (GOM) has a prominent role in Mexico’s standards system. The Secretariat of Economy (Secretaría de Economía or SE), through the General Standards Bureau (Dirección General de Normas or DGN), is the organization with the authority to manage and coordinate standards development in Mexico. Plans for standards development in Mexico are published annually in a publicly available standards workplan, and the country has a well-established process for notification, public comment, and amendment of standards before they are finalized.

Mexico’s Quality Infrastructure Law (QIL) was published in the Mexican Official Gazette on July 1, 2020, and entered into force on August 31, 2020. The QIL replaces the Federal Law on Metrology and Standardization (LFMN) and, according to the GOM, is based on the principles of integrity, transparency, efficiency, international best practices, quality, and traceability. The law governs standardization, accreditation, conformity assessment, and metrology activities in Mexico and addresses the coordination of metrology activities between the GOM and the private sector. The GOM has not published the QIL secondary ruling (Reglamento) as of the writing of this report. United States exporters are encouraged to be familiar with this important law as it governs Mexico’s standards system and may affect exports to this market.

Two definitions are important to keep in mind:

1.    Official Mexican Standards (Normas Oficiales Mexicanas or NOMs). NOMs are technical regulations, including labeling requirements, issued by government agencies and secretariats. Compliance with NOMs is mandatory. Any bureau, person, or council can propose the creation or modification of a NOM to the appropriate committee.
2.    Mexican Standards (Normas Mexicanas or NMXs). NMXs are voluntary standards issued by recognized national standards-making bodies. Compliance is mandatory only when a claim is made that a product meets the requirements of the NMX, when a NOM specifies compliance with an NMX, and whenever specified in government procurement.

Testing, Inspection, and Certification

Certain NOMs require companies to obtain for their product(s) a certificate of compliance issued by an accredited certification body. In the case of products manufactured outside Mexico, this certificate must accompany the import documentation at the port of entry. All products, processes, methods, installations, services, or activities must comply with applicable NOMs. The QIL established the possibility for private entities to perform the conformity assessment function through visual verification, sampling, measurement, laboratory testing, or documentary examination.

Accredited conformity assessment bodies are classified in the following categories:

  • Certification Bodies
  • Testing Laboratories
  • Calibration Laboratories
  • Verification Units


Under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Mexico recognized conformity assessment bodies in the United States and Canada on terms no less favorable than those applied in Mexico. However, only Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. and Intertek Testing Services NA, Inc. have been accredited.

Based upon agreements with other agencies, as well as with other certification organizations, DGN has established procedures for the certification of products to both technical regulations (NOMs) and voluntary standards (NMXs). Conformity assessment procedures issued by the DGN tend to be more fully developed and cover a significantly greater range of NOMs than those of other secretariats that develop NOMs.

Product Certification and Accreditation

The GOM authorizes private organizations to accredit conformity assessment bodies (calibration laboratories, certification bodies, testing laboratories, and verification/inspection units). The first authorized entity’s private non-profit institution is the Mexican Accreditation Entity (Entidad Mexicana de Acreditación or EMA).

Calibration Laboratories

Calibration laboratories are responsible for transferring the precision of reference standards to the measurement instruments used in the commercial and industrial sectors. The calibration laboratories can be sponsored by public or private organizations, including universities, professional associations, and private companies. Individuals interested in performing calibration activities can obtain certification after meeting the certification requirements set by law. 

Committees, made up of technicians and specialists in metrology, evaluate applications for certification as calibration laboratories. These committees make recommendations to the DGN for final decisions on certification. The committees also establish the technical specifications for the evaluation of calibration laboratories, set the precision requirements for the calibration chains, and set the methods for comparison of standards.

Certification Bodies

EMA has accredited several organizations for certifying compliance in different fields. The accreditation list includes, but it is not limited to, the following organizations:

  • ANCE: Asociación de Normalización y Certificación (Association for Standardization and Certification)
  • CALMECAC: Organismo Nacional de Certificación y Verificación (National Certification and Verification Organization)
  • CNCP: Centro de Normalización y Certificación de Productos, A.C. (Product Standardiation and Certification Center)
  • CRT: Consejo Regulador Del Tequila A.C. (Tequila Regulatory Council)
  • IMNC: Instituto Mexicano De Normalización y Certificación, A.C. (Mexican Institute of Standardization and Certification)
  • INNTEX: Instituto Nacional De Normalización Textil, A.C. (Mexican Institute of Textile Standardization)
  • NORMEX: Sociedad Mexicana de Normalización y Certificación, S.C. (Mexican Society of Standardization and Certification)
  • NYCE: Normalización y Certificación NYCE, S.C. (Standardization and Certification NYCE)
  • ONNCCE: Organismo de Normalización y Certificación de la Construcción y Edificación (Construction and Building Industry Standardization and Certification Organization)
  • UL de México: Underwriters Laboratories de México, S.A. de C.V.
  • Intertek: Intertek Testing Services de México S.A. de C.V.

 

The Secretary of Economy (SE) publishes foreign trade rules and general criteria in Mexico’s Official Gazette (Diario Oficial or DOF), which lists all products by tariff number that must comply with NOMs at the point of entry into Mexico. This document is constantly updated to reflect cancellations or changes in NOMs or the application of new ones.

Publication of Technical Regulations

The National Quality Infrastructure Program (PNIC) is the official document used to plan, inform, and coordinate standardization activities, both public and private, carried out by the GOM. The PNIC is published annually by SE in Mexico’s Official Gazette. The PNIC describes Mexico’s plans for new NMXs and NOMs, as well as proposed changes to existing standards and technical regulations. See: Mexico National Standardization Program 
United States entities can participate in this process in several ways:

  • Review the PNIC to learn about proposed standards and technical regulations
  • Participate in the applicable technical working group (requires physical presence)
  • Submit comments during the public consultation period
  • Solicit the creation, modification, or cancellation of Standards and NOMs

Use ePing to Review Proposed Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment Procedures

The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995, to present. ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and is a versatile tool that can be used to: 

  • Follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest.
  • Receive customized e-mail alerts when new notifications are distributed.
  • Find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees. 
     

Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates an Enquiry Point. National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat. All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Enquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://www.nist.gov/notifyus/commenting for further information. This guidance is provided to assist U.S. stakeholders in the preparation and submission of comments in response to notifications of proposed foreign technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.

Recent Regulatory Changes

On April 15, 2025, Mexico published a constitutional amendment mandating the creation of a National Law on Administrative Simplification to streamline government procedures, strengthen digital infrastructure, and establish new constitutional standards for regulatory policy. The Law was approved by the Senate on June 24. U.S. companies expressed concern over Article 36, which addresses Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs), warning that it could weaken Mexico’s current good regulatory practices framework. Nevertheless, Mexican Official Norms/NOMs (technical regulations and/or SPS measures depending on their purpose) as well as conformity assessment procedures, and control, inspection and approval procedures related to SPS, will continue to be subject to the rule making process (proceso de normalización), pursuant the Quality Infrastructure Law.

On July 16, 2025, the GOM published the latest version of the “Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law” in the official gazette. This reform marks the beginning of Mexico’s planned institutional restructuring, transferring responsibilities from the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones or IFETEL) to two new regulatory bodies:


1.    The Regulatory Commission in Telecommunications (Comisión Reguladora de Telecomunicaciones or CRT)
2.    The Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Policy Agency (Agencia de Transformación Digital y Telecomunicaciones or ATDT)

Although the law will dissolve IFETEL, the agency will not cease its operations immediately. Transitional provisions will allow IFETEL to continue its functions, ensuring regulatory continuity until the CRT’s Plenary Session is established. U.S. exporters specialized in this sector should be aware of this important regulatory change and, in case they are certifying a product per a regulation issued by IFETEL, work closely with the Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) to understand the process and transition to this new regulatory body.

Standards Bodies

The National Quality Infrastructure Commission (Comisión Nacional de Infraestructura de la Calidad or CNIC) is the coordinating body for standards policy at the national level. Currently, the CNIC is comprised of 43 members, including federal agencies, chambers, national standards bodies, and associations related to standardization. The CNIC’s main functions are to approve the National Quality Infrastructure Program, establish the coordination guidelines between agencies and entities at the federal level, prepare and publish standards, resolve any differences between National Standardization Advisory Committees (Comités Consultivos Nacionales de Normalización or CCNNs), and comment on the registration of national standardization bodies.

The National Standardization Technical Committees (Comités Técnicos de Estandarización or CTEs) are bodies recognized by SE and their main function is to create NMXs in those areas where National Standardization Bodies do not exist.

The principal GOM entities that develop NOMs include the following:

  • Secretariat of Economy (SE)
  • Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER)
  • Secretariat of Labor and Social Security (STPS)
  • Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT)
  • Secretariat of Tourism (SECTUR)
  • Secretariat of Land and Urban Development (SEDATU)
  • Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT)
  • Secretariat of Energy (SENER)
  • Secretariat of Health (SSA)
  • Secretariat of Interior (SEGOB)
  • Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE)
  • National Industrial Safety and Environmental Protection Agency for the Hydrocarbon Sector (ASEA)


Organizations that develop Standards include:

  • Electrical: Association of Standardization and Certification (ANCE)
  • Quality Systems: Mexican Institute of Standardization and Certification (IMNC)
  • Textiles: Mexican Institute of Textile Standardization (INNTEX)
  • Construction: Building and Construction Standardization and Certification Organization (ONNCCE)
  • Food Products and Quality Systems: Mexican Society of Standardization and Certification (NORMEX)
  • Electronics: Standardization and Certification NYCE
  • Dairy Products: Council for Milk Quality and Dairy Products (COFOCALEC)
  • Steel: National Chamber of the Iron and Steel Industry (CANACERO)
     

Standards Attaché and Specialist
Lauren Coughlin
Regional Standards Attaché
U.S. Commercial Service Mexico City
Tel.: +52 (55) 5080-2182
Lauren.Coughlin@trade.gov

Sylvia Montaño
Commercial Specialist
U.S. Commercial Service Mexico City
Tel.: +52 (55) 5080-2000 ext. 5219
Sylvia.Montano@trade.gov

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