Services / Market entry advisory

Mexico Market Entry Advisory

A Mexico entry is six coupled decisions, and the cost lives in the seams between them.

For Canadian and US companies entering Mexico.

A clean entry and a two-year unwind start the same way.

Most companies enter Mexico as a procurement exercise: a lawyer, a broker, a customs agent, a recruiter and an accountant, each doing one piece well. The expensive mistakes sit in the seams between those pieces, where no one is looking.

the economics

What the decision is worth, before you commit.

100%

Foreign ownership allowed in most sectors, with no local partner

30%

Federal corporate income tax, flat in every state

50%

CanExport SME reimbursement for Canadian companies, when the intake is open

What a Mexico entry involves

Six decisions, each one constraining the others:

Structure: the entity, ownership and foreign-investment registration
Site: the state, municipality, park and incentive package
Customs: padrón de importadores, IMMEX, USMCA origin and valuation
People: labor structure, IMSS and INFONAVIT, REPSE and benefits
Tax: permanent establishment, transfer pricing and residency
Money: banking, the capital injection and peso exposure

Get one wrong and the others shift with it.

The Mexico Entry Blueprint

A fixed-fee written diagnostic, delivered in three to four weeks, before any capital is at risk. It covers:

Entry structure, settled in the first week
A site shortlist to the municipality, run as a real incentives competition
The agencies your entry runs through, and which rules hold across political cycles
Total cost of entry, timeline and peso exposure
A 90-day sequencing plan
The people and institutions your entry depends on, by role
A live readout to decide the path

You leave with a go, a no-go, or a how. The fee is credited in full toward the engagement that follows.

One firm owns the seams

Your lawyer structures the entity without seeing the customs regime. Your broker picks a site without pricing the power. Each piece is done well, and the entry still leaks.

Calder & Vale runs the entry as one mandate. A principal leads the sequence and convenes the bench: legal, customs and trade, site and incentives, talent, tax and banking. The gaps get found on paper, before the capex.

For Canadian and US companies

The same team and the same sequence, under the same USMCA framework. Canadian companies can also use CanExport SME, which reimburses up to 50 percent of eligible advisory costs when its intake is open. The 2026-27 intake closed on August 31, 2026.

frequently asked questions

What does a Mexico market entry advisory actually do?

It runs the whole entry as one mandate: structure, site, customs, labor, tax and banking, sequenced in the right order. You get one accountable point of contact and an entry that fits together.

How long does it take to enter the Mexican market?

The written diagnostic takes three to four weeks. The full entry, from entity to operations, usually takes a few months, depending on your structure, your site and how fast power and registrations clear.

What is a soft landing in Mexico?

Entering once, cleanly, with structure, site, customs, labor and banking resolved in the right order, so you operate from day one without rework.

Can Canadian companies get funding for Mexico market entry?

Yes, when the program is open. CanExport SME reimburses up to 50 percent of eligible market-entry advisory costs. The 2026-27 intake closed on August 31, 2026, and the next window has not been announced.

The money leaks in the seams between six decisions, which is why one firm owns the whole entry.

Calder & Vale