What Is a Pedimento Aduanal?
A pedimento aduanal is the official document that legally covers goods entering or leaving Mexican territory, filled out according to the format and keys set by Annex 22 of Mexico's General Foreign Trade Rules (Reglas Generales de Comercio Exterior). Without a pedimento correctly filed and paid at customs, merchandise cannot legally enter Mexico or leave the country: it's the customs equivalent of an invoice for a cross-border shipment, except it carries fiscal and legal weight in front of the SAT, Mexico's tax authority.
Any company importing raw materials, exporting finished goods, or moving merchandise between Mexico and another country needs a pedimento for every single operation, almost always filed by a licensed customs broker on the importer's or exporter's behalf.
What Information Does a Pedimento Contain?
A pedimento is organized into two main blocks of data:
- Header section: the pedimento number, the pedimento key (the type of operation), the customs office of entry or exit, the importer's or exporter's tax ID (RFC) and details, the customs regime, the mode of transport, and the license number of the customs broker who filed it.
- Line items: the detail for each product in the shipment, including its 8-digit tariff classification (fracción arancelaria), commercial description, quantity, unit of measure, country of origin, customs value, and the breakdown of the foreign trade taxes paid (import duty, VAT, and, when it applies, countervailing duties).
Every one of those data points has to match exactly across the commercial invoice, the pedimento, and — on definitive operations — the CFDI that covers the goods; a mismatched tariff classification or a customs value that doesn't add up is one of the most common reasons a shipment gets held up.
How the Pedimento Number Is Structured
The pedimento number isn't an arbitrary reference: it's 15 digits organized into four blocks that identify exactly who filed it and when.
- The first 2 digits are the validation year of the pedimento.
- The next 2 digits identify the customs office where it was filed.
- The next 4 digits are the license number of the customs broker or brokerage firm responsible for it.
- The last 7 digits are the sequential number assigned by that broker at that customs office.
With that number, any authority can trace exactly which customs office, which year, and which broker's license a specific operation was filed under, which makes it the go-to reference in any foreign trade audit.
Types of Pedimento and the Most Common Pedimento Keys
Not every foreign trade operation is treated the same way, which is why different types of pedimento exist depending on what happens to the merchandise. The pedimento key is the code that tells customs exactly what kind of operation you're declaring; Annex 22 of the RGCE holds the full catalog, but these are the pedimento keys used most often in day-to-day operations:
- A1: definitive import or export. The merchandise enters or leaves the country permanently, and all corresponding taxes are paid at that point.
- IN: temporary importation of goods, typical of inputs used under manufacturing programs like IMMEX that are later returned or transformed into finished products.
- RT: return of merchandise that had previously entered under a temporary regime.
- V1: consolidated or virtual pedimento, used in operations between companies certified under specific schemes.
- F4 and AD: keys for regularizations and other cases defined by the SAT in Annex 22.
Before filing any operation, it's worth confirming the exact key with your customs broker, since using the wrong one can lead to fines or a precautionary seizure of the merchandise.
Import Pedimento vs. Export Pedimento
An import pedimento documents foreign merchandise entering Mexico: it covers the applicable foreign trade taxes and, if the goods stay in the country permanently, it typically uses the A1 definitive-import key. An export pedimento documents the opposite movement, Mexican merchandise leaving for another country, and it can also be filed as definitive or temporary depending on the destination and the regime the company operates under.
The most important practical difference for a business is fiscal: on definitive exports, the CFDI that covers the sale must include the Foreign Trade Complement (Complemento de Comercio Exterior), while on imports the pedimento serves as supporting documentation for the operation but doesn't generate that complement on its own.
What Is a Customs Broker and How Does It Relate to the Pedimento?
A customs broker (agente aduanal) is the person authorized by the customs authority, through a license, to legally represent importers and exporters before customs and handle the clearance of their merchandise, as set out in Mexico's Customs Law. In practice, the broker classifies the merchandise under the correct tariff code, calculates the taxes owed, prepares the pedimento with the data the client provides, and files it with the relevant customs office.
The customs broker is responsible for the accuracy of the data declared on the pedimento, and their license number is printed on every operation they file, embedded right in the pedimento number itself. On top of that, like any service provider in Mexico, the customs broker has to issue their own CFDI for the fees they charge, separate from the pedimento they file for the client's merchandise.
How the Pedimento Connects to the CFDI
The pedimento and the CFDI are two different documents that coexist in every foreign trade operation. The CFDI covering the invoice for a definitive export must include the Foreign Trade Complement, and several of the fields declared there — tariff classification, unit of measure, product description — have to match what's already on file in the corresponding pedimento, because the SAT cross-checks this information between the two documents.
Any inconsistency between the CFDI and the pedimento, however small it looks, is a common trigger for SAT observations or delays releasing the merchandise at customs. If your company also moves cargo within Mexico, it's worth reviewing how that leg is documented with the carta porte, which, together with the pedimento and the foreign trade complement, makes up the full documentation file for an import or export operation.
How to Automate Pedimento and Foreign Trade Management
As a company's import or export volume grows, manually cross-checking data between invoices, pedimentos, and CFDIs turns into repetitive, error-prone work: someone has to copy tariff classifications, compare amounts, and flag mismatches before the merchandise reaches customs.
Process automation lets a system read pedimentos and invoices, automatically cross-check the key data between both documents, and alert the foreign trade team the moment it finds an inconsistency, instead of finding out only after customs flags it. That cuts down the time the team spends on manual validation and lowers the risk of delays or fines caused by data that doesn't match between the pedimento and the CFDI.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is a pedimento aduanal?
It's the official document, filled out according to Annex 22 of the General Foreign Trade Rules, that legally covers merchandise entering or leaving Mexico and details the operation key, the goods, their customs value, and the taxes paid.
Who can file a pedimento?
Almost always a licensed customs broker files it, though Mexico's Customs Law also contemplates other cases of legal representation before customs for importers and exporters.
What does pedimento key A1 mean?
A1 identifies a definitive import or export: the merchandise enters or leaves the country permanently, and all applicable foreign trade taxes are paid at that point.
Are the pedimento and the CFDI the same document?
No. The pedimento is a customs document that covers the operation before the customs authority, while the CFDI is the tax receipt for the sale; on definitive exports, the CFDI must include the Foreign Trade Complement with data that has to match the pedimento.
What happens if the pedimento data doesn't match the CFDI?
It can trigger SAT observations, delays clearing the merchandise, or even penalties, because the authority cross-checks the information declared on both documents to confirm the operation is consistent.
If your company moves merchandise across customs offices and wants to stop cross-checking pedimentos, invoices, and foreign trade complements by hand, at AISDC we build process automation that validates that data across systems and flags your team before an error reaches customs.