Mexico’s National Customs Agency (ANAM) and French embassy officials held a working session to advance bilateral customs cooperation, covering modernization, real-time information exchange, trade facilitation, and the fight against smuggling and illicit substance trafficking, a meeting that also placed the upcoming Mexico-EU trade agreement on the agenda.
The session produced an agreement to reactivate a specialized training program between Mexican and French customs institutions, allowing Mexican personnel to resume participation in French customs bodies through cooperation schemes and scholarships funded by the French government.
Participants also addressed mechanisms for real-time information exchange to strengthen tax enforcement, anti-fraud operations and security in foreign trade operations. The upcoming Mexico-EU trade agreement was discussed as well, with both sides exchanging views on ANAM’s strategic priorities for 2026.
The working table included ANAM Director Héctor Gutiérrez, French Ambassador to Mexico Delphine Borione, North America Customs Adviser Marc Dagorn and Economic Adviser Anne Jaubertie. The meeting took place within the framework of the Bicentennial of Mexico-France Relations.
“ANAM reaffirms its commitment to promoting a more modern, efficient and secure customs system for the benefit of foreign trade and economic development,” the agency said.
On the sidelines of the bilateral engagement, Romero led the signing of the Decalogue of Customs Integrity and Pride alongside the heads of ANAM’s general directorates, reinforcing a zero-tolerance institutional policy on corruption. The measure is designed to strengthen public servants’ commitment to ethics, legality, transparency, accountability and public service, functions that President Claudia Sheinbaum has described as the first line of defense in foreign trade.
Bilateral Trade and Investment Context
The meeting reflects a commercial relationship in which France holds a structurally asymmetric position. In 2025, Mexico’s exports to France totaled US$1.271 billion, representing 0.21% of Mexico’s total exports, while imports from France reached US$4.838 billion, or 0.80% of total Mexican imports. The resulting net trade balance stood at -US$3.567 billion in Mexico’s favor for France.
In 2024, Mexico’s leading export to France was medical instruments and apparatus (US$145 million), with Ciudad de México (US$292 million), Queretaro (US$252 million) and Nuevo Leon (US$126 million) as the primary origin states. Mexico’s top import from France was pharmaceutical preparations for therapeutic or prophylactic use (US$389 million), with Mexico City (US$2.106 billion), Queretaro (US$816 million) and State of Mexico (US$706 million) as the main destination states.
French FDI in Mexico from January to December 2024 totaled -US$876 million, broken down into reinvestment of profits (US$811 million), new investments (US$10.3 million) and intercompany accounts (-US$1.697 billion). Since January 1999, France has invested a cumulative US$13.245 billion in Mexico, distributed across new investments (US$5.978 billion), reinvestment of profits (US$5.589 billion) and intercompany accounts (US$1.678 billion).
Historically, the states that have received the most French FDI are Mexico City (US$3.926 billion), Chihuahua (US$1.119 billion) and Queretaro (US$1.025 billion). In 2024, the entities with the highest French FDI inflows were the State of Mexico (US$82.7 million) and Chihuahua (US$45.2 million), with Morelos receiving a confidential amount.