Merchant of Record Mexico for South Korean Firms

Korean brands no longer see Mexico as a distant market. Skincare, makeup, snacks, tech accessories, and fashion from Seoul have real demand among Mexican shoppers who discover products on TikTok, compare reviews on Mercado Libre, and expect to receive their order in one or two days.

The problem is that selling in Mexico from South Korea requires answering two questions that have nothing to do with the product: who formally imports the merchandise, and who legally sells it to the Mexican consumer. A Korean company without an entity in Mexico cannot issue Mexican tax invoices, collect payment in pesos with a local account, or present itself to the SAT (Mexico's tax authority) like any domestic seller.

This is where the Merchant of Record, or MOR, comes in. It is the entity that sells on your behalf within Mexico, issues the tax invoices, manages VAT, and receives the customer's payment. When combined with a formal importer and a warehouse operation, it allows a Korean brand to operate as if it were local without setting up a company from day one.

In this article you will see how this model works for South Korean companies, what changed with the 2026 tariffs, which requirements apply by product category, which costs you should model, and when it makes sense to move to another structure.

What a Merchant of Record does in Mexico and what it doesn't

The Merchant of Record is the entity that legally appears as the seller in each transaction. When a customer in Guadalajara buys your serum, the MOR is the one who sells it to them, collects the payment, issues the CFDI (Mexican electronic invoice) when required, and declares and pays the VAT on that sale. Your brand remains the owner of the product, the price, the communication, and the customer relationship, but the local tax and commercial layer falls on the MOR.

This removes a very specific roadblock. To sell on a recurring basis in Mexico you need an RFC (Mexican tax ID), a tax regime, the ability to issue invoices, and a structure to receive pesos. A Korean company can obtain several of these pieces, but the process involves incorporating an entity, opening accounts, hiring local accounting, and keeping up with monthly obligations before you know whether the channel works.

What the MOR does not do on its own is import. If you want inventory in Mexico, someone has to present themselves to customs as the importer. If you want fast delivery, someone has to receive that inventory, store it, prepare orders, and handle returns. If you want to understand the customs side well before going further, it is worth reviewing what an importer of record is and how it works in ecommerce.

Confusion between these roles is the cause of many failed launches. This table separates them:

For a Korean company, the useful question is not which of these roles to hire, but how many of them a single partner can bring together. Each additional third party adds a contract, a reconciliation, and a point where information gets lost between customs, the warehouse, and invoicing.

If you compare options, you will find Merchant of Record providers operating in Mexico with very different profiles. Many were built for software and digital products. For physical goods crossing the Pacific, you need an MOR that understands inventory, customs, and logistics, not just payments. That is Cubbo's focus: it brings together the roles of importer, Merchant of Record, and fulfillment provider in Mexico.

Why Korean companies are looking at Mexico in 2026

Mexico is the second-largest beauty market in Latin America, behind only Brazil. During K-Expo Mexico in September 2026, in Mexico City, the major Korean houses made their goals for the country public. According to The Korea Herald, the CEO of Amorepacific spoke of multiplying its business in Mexico more than tenfold in five years, and LG H&H described the country as a strategic hub for its Latin American expansion, with plans to strengthen its presence on Mercado Libre.

It is not just a move by the big groups. Distributors specializing in K-beauty already operate subsidiaries in Mexico, and mid-sized brands are testing the market through marketplaces and social media. The growth of fulfillment for beauty brands in Mexico reflects the same pattern: more SKUs, more channels, and customers who expect fast delivery.

Demand also has a cultural component. K-pop, K-dramas, and the presence of Korean content creators on video platforms created a Mexican shopper who recognizes brands and looks for specific products. That shopper usually arrives from short-form content, which is why TikTok Shop for beauty brands in Mexico has become a test channel for many Asian brands.

Beyond beauty, Mexico receives Korean products in consumer electronics, phone accessories, stationery, packaged foods, supplements, and fashion. The economic relationship is already large: bilateral trade was around 29 billion dollars in 2024, according to statements by Mexico's ambassador in Seoul, and Mexico is a manufacturing base for Korean car and appliance makers.

The difference lies in the channel. Large Korean corporations arrive with plants, subsidiaries, and legal teams. A consumer brand that sells online doesn't have that structure, and needs a way to operate locally that doesn't require months of corporate incorporation.

The factor that changes the math: Mexico and Korea have no trade agreement

This is the most important difference compared with a brand from the United States, Canada, Japan, or the European Union. Mexico and South Korea started negotiating a free trade agreement almost two decades ago, but talks stalled in 2008. Since then there have been several announcements of a restart. In September 2026, both governments agreed to begin a joint feasibility study, but there is no agreement in force.

Without an agreement, Korean products pay the general tariff under Mexico's General Import and Export Tax Law, with no preferences. And that tariff went up. The decree that took effect on January 1, 2026 raised the rates on more than 1,000 tariff lines for countries without a trade agreement with Mexico, including South Korea, China, and India. According to the analysis published in Mondaq, most rates go up to 35% and some cases up to 50%, and the increases were built into the law permanently, not as a temporary measure.

The affected categories include cosmetics and personal care products, perfumes, plastics, textiles, steel, and auto parts. In the case of Korean cosmetics, the industry reports tariffs of around 25% after the adjustment, about 10 percentage points more than before.

There is a second change that hits order-by-order cross-border sales directly. The foreign trade rules amended in 2025 set a global rate of 33.5% for imports via courier and parcel services from countries outside the USMCA, compared with the previous 19%, according to the summary by Baker McKenzie. Confirm with your customs broker that this rate is still in effect before deciding, because the rules are updated every year, but the direction is clear: shipping each order from Seoul by courier has become more expensive.

What does this mean for your operation?

• Tariff classification matters more than before. A wrong tariff line can move your landed cost by several points. It is worth reviewing each SKU with a specialist before the first shipment.
• Importing in volume usually beats individual shipments. With the high courier rate, consolidating inventory and clearing it through customs once reduces the cost per unit and eliminates customs friction on every order.
• Your selling price needs to be recalculated. If your price in Mexico comes from your list price in Korea or your price in the United States, it probably no longer covers the landed cost. Review how to calculate a product's selling price including tariffs, the customs processing fee (DTA), freight, and commissions.
• The context is not the same as for a North American brand. A Canadian company can take advantage of the USMCA, as shown when importing into Mexico from Canada with an IOR. A Korean brand doesn't have that preference, so its financial model starts from a different point.

None of this makes the market unviable. Korean beauty brands themselves said at K-Expo that they don't plan to raise prices for now and will absorb part of the cost. But it does require operating with more discipline: fewer classification errors, less returned product lost, and less misallocated inventory. That is why, at Cubbo, the classification and labeling of each product are reviewed before the first shipment, not once the merchandise is already at customs.

What the full operation looks like, from Seoul to the Mexican customer

A Merchant of Record model works when each stage has a clear owner. This is the typical journey of a Korean brand that sells online in Mexico with local inventory.

On the Korean side: export and documentation

Everything starts in Korea. Your company or your logistics provider files the export declaration with the Korea Customs Service through its electronic system. In general, the export of goods is zero-rated for VAT in Korea, as long as you keep the documentation that proves the merchandise left the country.

For the Mexican side, you will need at least a commercial invoice with an accurate description, value, currency, and Incoterm, a packing list by box and by SKU, the transport document, and, depending on the category, technical data sheets, safety data sheets, formulas, or certificates. Prepare the descriptions in Spanish or English from the start. An invoice that only says "cosmetics" or "skin care set" triggers questions at customs and delays.

A point many brands overlook: since there is no trade agreement, the certificate of origin doesn't give you a tariff preference in Mexico. Even so, origin must be well documented, because it determines which rate applies and can be audited.

Transportation: ocean or air

The most commonly used ocean route leaves Busan for Mexico's Pacific ports, mainly Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas. Direct services published by shipping lines take roughly 17 to 24 days in transit, and routes with transshipment can approach a month. Add customs clearance time and ground transport to the warehouse on top of that.

Air freight reduces transit to a few days, but costs several times more per kilo. Many brands combine both: air for the launch and for restocking fast-moving SKUs, ocean for the base inventory. That mix requires good planning, because a container that leaves Busan late can leave you out of stock in the middle of peak season.

Entry into Mexico: importer, customs declaration, and regulations

When the merchandise arrives, the importer of record files the customs declaration (pedimento) through a customs broker, pays the tariff, the customs processing fee, and import VAT, and proves compliance with any applicable non-tariff regulations. If you don't have an entity in Mexico, that role is taken on by a third party acting as IOR. The requirements for an IOR in Mexico include being enrolled in the importers' registry and, for certain categories such as textiles or footwear, in sector-specific registries.

This is where labeling NOMs (Mexican Official Standards) and, in some categories, COFEPRIS (Mexico's health regulator) procedures come in. Further on you will see what applies by product type. If this is your first import, it is worth understanding how importing with an IOR works step by step before committing to launch dates.

Local sale: the MOR's role

Once the merchandise has cleared customs, the MOR sells to the Mexican consumer. It collects payment in pesos, issues the corresponding tax invoice, charges the VAT on the sale, and declares it to the SAT. On marketplaces, the seller account operates under a Mexican tax structure, which changes how withholdings are handled, as you will see in the next section.

The MOR also takes on part of the transactional risk: chargebacks, disputes, and fraud. If you sell by card, it is worth understanding how chargebacks and fraud in ecommerce are handled, because the final impact depends on how it is defined in your contract.

Fulfillment, delivery, and returns

The last stage is the one the customer sees. Inventory is received at a warehouse, checked against the packing list, put away by SKU and lot, and made available for your channels. Each order is prepared, packed, and handed to the right carrier based on destination and weight. If you want to review the full process, the ABCs of ecommerce fulfillment explains it from start to finish.

Returns are where a foreign brand loses the most money. Sending a product back to Korea almost never makes economic sense. You need to receive it in Mexico, inspect it, and decide whether it goes back into inventory, gets refurbished, or is written off. With Cubbo, that process happens in the same warehouse where your inventory lives.

Taxes and invoicing: what changes when you sell through an MOR

The general VAT rate in Mexico is 16% and applies to both sales of goods and imports, according to the tax summary by PwC. On import, the importer pays VAT on the customs value plus the tariff and fees. On sale, the seller charges VAT to the customer. When both roles sit under the same Mexican structure, the VAT paid at customs can normally be credited against the VAT collected on the sale, which improves cash flow.

The most relevant change for 2026 is on marketplaces. Since January 1, digital platforms must withhold 100% of the VAT when the seller is a foreign resident without a permanent establishment in Mexico who sells goods within the country. They also withhold 2.5% income tax (ISR) on gross income, and the withholding increases when the seller does not provide an RFC.

For a Korean brand that sells directly on a Mexican marketplace as a foreign company, this means a significant part of each sale is withheld, and recovering it can be complicated without a local structure. When you sell through an MOR with an entity and an RFC in Mexico, withholdings are calculated under the regime for domestic sellers and are integrated into its monthly accounting. The details depend on your contract and the platform, so validate them with your tax advisor, but the difference in cash flow is usually large.

Invoicing is the other practical point. Mexican buyers, especially businesses and professionals, frequently ask for a CFDI. If you sell to resellers, spas, salons, or stores, without a CFDI you simply won't close the sale. An MOR that issues invoices with the correct data opens up that B2B segment without you having to register with the SAT. Cubbo, for example, issues CFDIs with its Mexican tax entity on behalf of your brand.

Finally, currency. Your costs are in won or dollars, your sales in pesos. The MOR settles sales to your account after deducting taxes, commissions, and fees, and the exchange rate affects your real margin. Define in the contract how often settlement happens, in what currency, and at what exchange rate.

Requirements for the categories Korean brands export most

Each category has its own rules. These are the ones that come up most often among Korean brands entering Mexico.

Cosmetics and skincare

Most cosmetics don't require sanitary registration in Mexico, but they must comply with the NOM-141-SSA1/SCFI-2012 labeling standard, which requires, in Spanish, the product name, ingredients, net content, country of origin, importer details, precautionary statements, and lot number. Depending on the tariff line, the import may also require notices or permits from COFEPRIS. You can review the details in this analysis of cosmetic product registration in Mexico.

In K-beauty, the challenge usually lies in the claims. Statements such as "whitening," "cell repair," or effects that sound like medical treatment can turn a cosmetic into a product with a different regulatory classification. Review your packaging copy and product listings before translating them literally from Korean.

In the warehouse, cosmetics require lot and expiration date control, rotation by expiration date, and temperature care for sensitive products. The particulars of cosmetics fulfillment in Mexico explain why not every warehouse is prepared for this category.

Consumer electronics and accessories

Phone accessories, headphones, chargers, and small appliances must include the commercial information in Spanish required by NOM-024-SCFI-2013 and, when they plug into the mains, comply with electrical safety standards with certification. Devices with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi also require type approval from the Federal Telecommunications Institute.

These procedures take weeks and must be completed before shipment, not when the merchandise is already at the port. A container held for a missing certificate generates storage fees, delays, and, in the worst case, a return shipment.

Food, beverages, and snacks

Korean instant ramen, sauces, candy, and beverages have growing demand, but they fall under one of the strictest labeling regulations in the region. NOM-051 requires information in Spanish and front-of-pack warning seals for excess calories, sugars, sodium, or fats. Many Korean snacks carry one or more seals, and labeling must be sorted out before sale.

Some foods also require sanitary import notices or permits. If you also sell supplements or wellness products, the handling is similar to that described in supplement fulfillment in Mexico, with special attention to lots and dates.

Fashion, textiles, and accessories

Korean clothing and textiles must comply with NOM-004-SE-2021 for textile labeling, which requires fiber composition, care instructions, size, and importer details in Spanish. Textiles are among the sectors with the highest tariffs after the 2026 adjustment, and importing them requires a sector-specific registry.

For this category, the financial model should account for higher return rates due to sizing. Fulfillment for apparel and fashion in Mexico shows how exchanges and returns are handled without losing control of inventory.

How Cubbo helps Korean brands sell in Mexico

So far, the journey has many pieces: importer, customs broker, NOM compliance, legal seller, warehouse, carriers, and returns. Most Korean brands that fail in Mexico don't fail because of the product, but because those pieces end up split among four or five providers that don't talk to each other.

Cubbo brings those layers together in a single structure. It acts as Importer of Record and Merchant of Record in Mexico, and also runs order fulfillment. For a South Korean company, this means the product can enter, be sold, and be delivered under a Mexican entity without you having to set up a company, register with the SAT, or open local bank accounts.

What Cubbo takes on as importer

Before the first shipment, Cubbo analyzes your products: applicable regulations, documentation, taxes, and category requirements. This review is key for a Korean brand, because with the 2026 tariffs, a wrongly assigned tariff line or incomplete labeling translates directly into cost.

Then Cubbo takes on the import process as IOR. It coordinates clearance, pays taxes and tariffs, and handles the permits your product needs, including COFEPRIS permits when they apply. Your team in Korea provides the commercial invoice, the packing list, the transport documents, and the certificates that correspond to each product. Importing stops being a separate project and becomes part of the operational flow.

What Cubbo takes on as Merchant of Record

Once the merchandise has cleared customs, Cubbo sells through its MOR structure. It uses its Mexican tax entity to process sales, collect payment in pesos, manage VAT, and issue CFDIs on behalf of your brand. How payments from sales are received is defined by the model you sign up for, so it is worth reviewing from the start how and when funds are settled.

This point is especially valuable in 2026 because of marketplace withholdings on foreign sellers. By operating under a Mexican structure, your brand can sell on local platforms without facing the full withholding regime that applies to non-residents, something you would compare case by case with your tax advisor.

The model is similar to the one used to expand US brands with a Merchant of Record, with one difference: a Korean brand doesn't have USMCA preferences, so import efficiency weighs even more heavily on the margin.

What happens with your inventory in Mexico

Cubbo stores the inventory at its fulfillment centers in Mexico, following the logic of an ecommerce warehouse in CDMX close to the country's largest concentration of shoppers, and connects it to your sales channels. It integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, VTEX, Mercado Libre, Amazon, and TikTok Shop, among other platforms, and syncs stock so that a single inventory supplies all your channels without overselling.

Each order is prepared, packed, and shipped with the most convenient carrier among more than 10 options, based on destination, weight, and delivery time. In Mexico City there is same-day delivery for orders placed before the cutoff time, and in the country's main markets delivery times are around one to two days. For a brand competing with products that are already in the country, that delivery time changes conversion.

Packaging can include your brand identity: inserts, samples, cards, and an unboxing experience designed for your customers. In K-beauty, where presentation is part of the product, this matters as much as speed.

Returns are received in Mexico, inspected, and, when the product is in good condition, added back to inventory. That way, a returned product doesn't automatically become a loss, as it would if it had to go back to Korea.

What your team in Korea keeps

Your team keeps control of what defines the brand: product, pricing, campaigns, content, catalog, and channel strategy. What changes is that day-to-day execution happens in Mexico, on the Mexican customer's schedule.

The time difference between Seoul and Mexico City is 15 hours. When your team starts its day, Mexico has already finished the previous workday. If every order issue, every customs question, or every return depends on an answer from Korea, the customer waits a full day. With a local operation, operational decisions are made on the spot and your team receives consolidated information to plan restocking.

What a typical launch looks like

Think of a skincare brand from Seoul with 35 SKUs that already sells in Korea and the United States and wants to test Mexico through Mercado Libre and its own Shopify store. A reasonable launch would look like this:

• Product review. Tariff classification of the 35 SKUs, review of labels against NOM-141, and identification of claims that need adjusting.
• First shipment. An air shipment with the highest-demand SKUs to launch quickly, followed by an ocean shipment from Busan for the base inventory.
• Customs clearance. Cubbo imports as IOR, pays duties and taxes, and handles the applicable procedures.
• Commercial setup. Configuration of the MOR structure, marketplace accounts, and CFDI issuance.
• Operation. Inventory synced across channels, orders prepared from Mexico, and returns handled locally.

Cubbo estimates that a foreign brand can start selling in Mexico within one to three months, depending on the type of product and the permits it requires. Categories with sanitary procedures or certifications tend toward the longer end of that range.

Cubbo also operates in Brazil. For Korean brands that, like several beauty groups, see Mexico as a gateway to Latin America, this makes it possible to plan a second stage with the same operating partner.

Costs you should model before shipping the first container

An MOR model doesn't eliminate costs; it organizes them. Before shipping inventory, build your landed cost and your cost per order with these components:

• Product and packaging cost at origin, in won or dollars.
• International freight and insurance, ocean or air, plus port handling.
• Tariff, based on each SKU's tariff line and with no trade agreement preference.
• Customs processing fee, which on definitive imports is usually calculated as a small percentage of the customs value.
• 16% import VAT, which is normally recovered by crediting it against sales, but does affect your cash flow.
• Customs broker fees, certifications, and labeling when they apply.
• MOR and IOR service fee, depending on the model you sign up for.
• Fulfillment cost per order, which includes receiving, storage, preparation, packing, and shipping.
• Marketplace and payment processing commissions.
• Returns and shrinkage, with a realistic rate for your category.
• Exchange rate effect between the moment you buy in Korea and the moment you receive the settlement.

With those numbers you can decide which SKUs make sense to bring in. Not the whole Korean catalog works in Mexico. A low-priced, low-margin product can become unviable with a tariff of 25% or more, while a mid-ticket serum with a good reputation can absorb the cost without a problem.

It is also worth planning inventory by season. Sales in Mexico concentrate around dates such as Hot Sale, Buen Fin, Mother's Day, and Christmas, and the seasonal buying intent patterns of Mexican shoppers don't always match the Korean retail calendar. With 17 to 24 days of ocean transit plus clearance, your Buen Fin restock order needs to leave Busan weeks in advance. You can rely on this method to estimate inventory for peak seasons.

6 Common mistakes Korean companies make when entering Mexico

These are the stumbles that come up most often:

1. Sticking with order-by-order shipping. It works for validating demand, but with the global courier rate for countries without a trade agreement and delivery times of one or two weeks, it doesn't scale. The Mexican customer compares against products that arrive in a day.
2. Copying the US model. Many Korean brands enter the United States first and assume Mexico works the same way. There is no USMCA for Korean products, labeling is different, invoicing is different, and the dominant marketplaces are not the same.
3. Translating labels instead of adapting them. A label translated from Korean into Spanish doesn't necessarily comply with the NOM. Importer details, precautionary statements, or net content formats are missing, and the merchandise gets held.
4. Selling on marketplaces as a foreign company. With the 2026 withholdings, operating without a Mexican tax structure leaves a significant part of revenue withheld. It is worth evaluating an MOR, such as Cubbo, before opening accounts.
5. Splitting inventory by channel. If you have one inventory for Mercado Libre, another for Amazon, and another for your store, you will end up overselling in one and with idle stock in another. Apply inventory control best practices from the first shipment.
6. Serving Mexican customers from Korea. Questions about shipping, sizes, or product use need answers in Spanish and during local business hours. The delay is paid for in reviews and repeat purchases, which is the metric that matters most when acquisition costs are high. It is worth measuring your retention rate over time from the first months.

MOR, distributor, or your own entity: which fits your stage

There is no single right model for every Korean brand. It depends on your volume, your time horizon, and how much control you want over the channel.

Local distributor or importer. A distributor buys your product and resells it. It is the option with the least financial risk, but you lose control over price, the experience, and customer data. It works well for physical retail and chains, such as those you find when selling on Liverpool's marketplace, but it limits direct-to-consumer growth.

Merchant of Record with IOR and fulfillment. You keep ownership of the channel, the price, and the customer relationship, and you operate as a local brand without incorporating a company. It is the natural option for validating Mexico with real inventory during the first one to three years, or for brands that don't want to maintain an entity in every country where they sell. It is the model Cubbo uses with foreign brands.

Your own entity in Mexico. It makes sense when volume already justifies a local team, your own accounting, and a direct relationship with authorities. Even with an entity, many brands keep fulfillment outsourced with a 3PL provider in Mexico, because building your own warehouse rarely pays off in the first few years.

The most common path is sequential: validate with an MOR, grow with real sales data, and, if the business justifies it, open an entity without changing the logistics operation. Brands from other countries without a local entity follow similar paths, as seen when selling in Mexico with an importer of record from the United Kingdom.

Before the first shipment: checklist

Use this list to see whether you are ready to move inventory from Korea to Mexico:

• You have the tariff classification for each SKU and know the rate that applies without a trade agreement.
• Your labels comply with the corresponding NOM, including the importer's details in Mexico.
• You have identified whether your category requires COFEPRIS procedures, safety certification, or type approval.
• You have defined which SKUs will go by air and which by ocean.
• You have calculated the landed cost and the selling price in pesos for each channel.
• You have chosen your launch channels, for example fulfillment for Mercado Libre, your Shopify store with fulfillment in Mexico, or TikTok Shop with local inventory.
• You have agreed with your MOR on how CFDIs are issued, how sales are settled, and in what currency.
• You have a return policy adapted to Mexico and a process for putting product back into inventory.
• You know the order preparation times in Mexico and the same-day shipping options in CDMX.
• You know which carriers cover your key areas. This overview of shipping platforms in Mexico helps you compare.

If most of the points are still open, it is not the time to ship a container. It is the time to resolve them with your operating partner, because each one becomes more expensive once the merchandise is already at the port.

Mexico rewards Korean brands that operate like local ones

Demand for Korean products in Mexico is real and keeps growing, especially in beauty. But the market changed in 2026: with no trade agreement, higher tariffs for countries without an agreement, and new marketplace withholdings, selling from Korea as if Mexico were just another export destination has become expensive.

The Merchant of Record solves the part that holds foreign companies back the most: selling legally, collecting payment in pesos, and invoicing without setting up a company. When that role is combined with a formal importer and a fulfillment operation in the country, the Korean brand stops depending on international shipments and starts competing on the same terms as a local brand, with fast deliveries, returns handled in Mexico, and inventory synced across channels.

The order matters: first review your product against tariffs and standards, then define the import and sales structure, and only then ship inventory. Brands that follow that sequence, with a partner like Cubbo that brings together importing, selling, and fulfillment, arrive in Mexico with margins they can defend.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Does a Korean company need to set up a company in Mexico to sell online?

Not necessarily. With a Merchant of Record, the sale, payment collection in pesos, VAT, and CFDI issuance are handled under the MOR's Mexican entity. If you also need local inventory, an Importer of Record takes on the formal import. Setting up your own company usually makes sense later, when volume justifies a local team and accounting.

What is the difference between a Merchant of Record and an Importer of Record in Mexico?

The Importer of Record answers to customs: it files the customs declaration, pays tariffs and import VAT, and complies with non-tariff regulations. The Merchant of Record answers for the sale: it collects from the customer, issues the tax invoice, and declares the VAT on the sale. They are different roles, although a single provider, such as Cubbo, can offer both.

Do Korean products pay tariffs when entering Mexico?

Yes. Mexico and South Korea don't have a free trade agreement in force, so Korean products pay the general tariff. Since January 1, 2026, rates went up on more than 1,000 tariff lines for countries without an agreement, including cosmetics, textiles, and plastics. The exact rate depends on each product's tariff classification.

Do Korean cosmetics need sanitary registration in Mexico?

Most cosmetics don't require sanitary registration, but they must comply with NOM-141-SSA1/SCFI-2012 for Spanish-language labeling and, depending on the tariff line, some COFEPRIS procedures at import. Claims with therapeutic effects can change the product's classification, so it is worth reviewing them before translating the packaging.

How long does it take for merchandise to arrive from Korea to Mexico?

By ocean, direct services from Busan to Manzanillo or Lázaro Cárdenas usually take between 17 and 24 days, and routes with transshipment can approach a month. Customs clearance and transport to the warehouse are added on top of that. By air, transit takes a few days, but with a much higher cost per kilo.

Can I sell on Mercado Libre or Amazon Mexico with a Merchant of Record?

Yes. The MOR operates the seller account under a Mexican tax structure with an RFC, which allows selling on local marketplaces and issuing invoices. In 2026, this also changes how withholdings are handled compared with selling as a foreign company without an establishment in Mexico, so it is worth reviewing with your tax advisor.

How long does it take to start selling in Mexico with an MOR model?

It depends on the product. For categories without special procedures, the launch can take a few weeks from the moment the inventory is ready. For products that require sanitary permits, safety certifications, or type approvals, the timeline extends. As a general reference, the full process usually takes between one and three months.

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