Mexico's 2026 customs reform put your broker on the hook for your compliance

If your customs broker has changed how they deal with you this year, more questions, more documents, more verification before they'll clear a shipment, there's a single reason behind it. As of January 1, 2026, your broker is jointly liable for the compliance of the cargo they move for you. This is not a proposal on the horizon. It is the law you are already operating under.

The Decreto reforming the Ley Aduanera was published in the DOF on November 19, 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026, with limited transitional exceptions. Paired with the Reglas Generales de Comercio Exterior 2026, it rewires the relationship between importer and broker. If you've been treating the new paperwork as your broker being difficult, this piece explains what actually changed, and why the relationship can't go back to how it worked in 2025.

What changed, item by item

The reform is best understood as a set of discrete shifts, each of which lands on your operation.

1. Solidary liability, with no exclusions. The broker is now a responsable solidario for contributions and compliance on the operations they promote. Under the reformed Article 53 of the Ley Aduanera, brokers operating as partners of an agencia aduanal are now jointly and severally liable, no longer merely subsidiarily liable. Crucially, the grounds that used to excuse them ("the client gave me bad data") were eliminated. The result is total solidary responsibility, without the prior exclusions, for the operations a broker participates in.
2. A mandatory file on every client. Regla 1.4.14 of the RGCE 2026, operationalizing Article 162, fracción VI of the Ley Aduanera, requires the broker to build and safeguard an electronic file documenting who you are, your operational materiality, and your clearance against the SAT watchlists. We cover that file in detail in the cluster's anchor guide.
3. A re-engineered patente. The patente aduanal is now valid for 20 years, renewable, but the broker must re-certify every three years. The license is longer-lived and more conditional at the same time.
4. Higher technical responsibility for the despacho. Article 54 makes the broker expressly responsible for correct determination of contributions and for ensuring the importer or exporter holds documents that reliably prove compliance, including non-tariff regulations and restrictions (RRNA). The standard moved from "assemble the clearance" to "back the declaration with consistent documentary support."
5. New grounds for suspension and cancellation. The reform adds causes for suspending and canceling broker and agency licenses, and creates a Consejo Aduanero (Article 159 bis) with authority over granting, suspending, and canceling patentes.

⚠️ Common mistake: Reading this as "my broker's problem." Solidary liability runs in both directions. The verification your broker now performs is the verification that keeps your clearance moving, and an incomplete file is a held shipment, not a paperwork footnote.

The bigger thread: from facilitation to control

This reform didn't arrive in isolation. It was advanced as part of the Paquete Económico 2026 and framed by the SHCP as a tool to strengthen oversight and fight under-valuation and contraband. In our reading of the package, the through-line is unmistakable: a move from a facilitation paradigm to a regime of intensive control.

The numbers behind it are real. The Ley de Ingresos de la Federación 2026 (DOF, November 7, 2025) projects revenue from import duties rising from roughly 151.8 billion pesos in 2025 to 254.8 billion in 2026. And ANAM reported opening 45 administrative proceedings against customs brokers in 2025, ending in 34 patente cancellations and one suspension (ANAM, Comunicado de prensa 22/2025, October 13, 2025). When the enforcement environment changes this much, the people who clear your cargo change how they work, because their license now depends on it.

On paper, much of this looks like a tightening of broker obligations. In practice, it redraws the importer's risk surface: the documentary rigor that used to be optional courtesy is now the precondition for clearance.

Why this lands on the trade director's desk

It's tempting to file this under "legal" or "our broker handles it." Neither is right.

The trade or foreign-trade director owns the relationship that just changed. Your broker now needs verifiable proof of your operational reality (materiality evidence, current corporate and tax documents, signed compliance declarations), and they need it before cargo moves, not after. If your internal documentation is scattered across departments, or your file with the broker is stale, the bottleneck shows up in your clearance times, your line schedules, and your CFO's questions.

The relationship moved from transactional to fiduciary. Your broker is now exposed to your compliance, which means they will, and must, verify it. The directors who adapt fastest are treating the broker as a compliance partner who needs to be equipped, not a vendor to be managed at arm's length.

What to do now

Four moves, in order.

1. Confirm your file is current. Ask your broker when your expediente was last updated and whether it satisfies Regla 1.4.14. If it's older than the operation it describes, fix that first.
2. Assemble your materiality evidence. Georeferenced facility photos, asset documentation, proof you operate where you say you do. This is the part most operations underestimate.
3. Run your own watchlist check. Verify your suppliers and counterparties against the SAT lists (Articles 49 Bis, 69, 69-B, 69-B Bis CFF) before your broker flags an exposure you didn't know you had.
4. Review the instrument governing the relationship. A carta encomienda enables clearance but no longer carries the documentary and audit obligations the reform requires. The service contract is where those now live (a topic we break down separately for CFO and legal teams).

The reform is in force. The only open question is whether your operation is running with a clean file or discovering the gaps the hard way, when the cargo is already moving.

When did your team last sit down with your broker to confirm your file would survive an audit? If the answer is "we haven't," that's the conversation to have this month. Talk to a Joffroy expert.

TRADE. UNDER CONTROL.