The OECD Review of Regulatory Policy in Mexico is a country report carried out under the programme of work of the Regulatory Policy Committee of the OECD. The review methodology has developed over two decades of peer learning. It draws on and is grounded in a number of OECD instruments including: the 1995 Recommendation of the Council of the OECD on Improving the Quality of Government Regulation; the 2005 Guiding Principles for Regulatory Quality and Performance; and the 2012 Recommendation of the OECD Council on Regulatory Policy and Governance. The country reviews follow a multi-disciplinary approach and focus on the government’s capacity to manage regulatory policy. Taken as a whole, the reviews demonstrate that a well-structured and implemented programme of regulatory policy can make a significant contribution to better economic performance and enhanced social welfare. Economic growth, job creation, innovation, investment and new industries are boosted by effective regulatory policy, which also helps to bring lower prices and more choices for consumers.

Mexico has a formal policy on better regulation established in the Federal Law of Administrative Procedure (LFPA). The main elements of this policy include the establishment of the Federal Commission for Regulatory Improvement (COFEMER) as the oversight body, the responsibilities of line ministries and regulators, as well as the establishment of tools for the regulatory improvement policy, amongst them regulatory impact assessment (RIA), administrative simplification, consultation, and diagnoses of the stock of regulation.

Mexico should embrace a “whole-of-government” culture for regulatory improvement policy, which should be accompanied with a strengthening of the institutional design of COFEMER. The governance framework of the Mexican regulatory authorities needs to be strengthened to ensure independence from direct political intervention and particular interests. At state and municipal level, institutions and capacities that support regulatory reform should be developed while increasing the degree of political commitment to regulatory quality.

This chapter highlights the importance and benefits of regulatory policy. It also defines regulatory governance and discusses the main elements for an effective management of regulatory governance: regulatory policy, institutions and tools.

This chapter describes Mexico’s current policies for better regulation and the institutions that have been set up to support and implement such policies. Mexico has a formal policy on better regulation established in the Federal Law of Administrative Procedure. The Federal Commission for Regulatory Improvement oversees this policy, in which line ministries and agencies of the federal public administration have specific obligations as well. There are important synergies between COFEMER and the Ministry of Public Administration in the better regulation policy. There is also a renewed emphasis in Mexico on training and capacity building to improve the quality of regulations.

This chapter describes the process by which regulations are made in Mexico and the ex ante tools to ensure their quality, including regulatory impact assessment (RIA) and public consultation. Likewise, it analyses the main issues identified in the methodologies and processes applied to these tools and proposes reforms to strengthen their implementation with the aim of improving the quality of the flow of regulations. Finally, it assesses the Mexican situation in light of the OECD’s principles and best practices and the experiences of other member countries.

This chapter presents the actions on administrative simplification and management of the stock of regulation applied by Mexico in the recent years. International best practice has been adopted in the programme to reduce administrative burdens, through the adaptation of the Standard Cost Model. These actions have been complemented with other administrative simplification strategies which have been priorities of the Mexican government, including the Base Cero programme and the one-stop shop tuempresa.gob.mx. The programme of simplification for regulation inside government has delivered significant results.

This chapter deals with the governance of the so-called regulatory authorities (regulators) in Mexico. It takes an example of three Mexican regulators and draws some general conclusions on the overall governance framework. Special attention is paid to the issue of independence and accountability of the regulators.

This chapter discusses progress and achievements in terms of the management of the different stages of the regulatory governance cycle and the development of policies, institutions, and tools for better regulation in Mexico’s states and municipalities. Likewise, it analyses current weaknesses and challenges, proposing a set of recommendations to overcome them. The report relies on good national and international practices to derive lessons for Mexico’s federal and sub-national governments to improve co-ordination and raise regulatory reform to a priority in the political agenda. Four states were used as case studies, based on their progress in the better regulation agenda and the suggestion of the COFEMER. These states were Aguascalientes, Colima, Jalisco, and Nuevo León. Likewise, the experience accumulated by the OECD in working with Mexico’s states and municipalities was the main input for the analysis.