On November 2, 2026, the Secretaría de Economía (Economy Ministry) published in the DOF (Mexico's federal gazette) the Norma Oficial Mexicana de Emergencia (emergency official Mexican standard) NOM-EM-023-SE-2026 for hydraulic cements, signed on October 26 and in force as of the following business day. Its recitals invoke article 31 of the Ley de Infraestructura de la Calidad (Quality Infrastructure Law), which reserves emergency standards for preventing imminent harm or mitigating existing harm, and state that uncertified cement produces low compressive strength and "high risk for people". The only figure for harm they quantify comes, according to the text itself, from "information obtained by the legally established cement industry": at least 576,000 tons a year in the hands of companies outside the regulatory framework, with an impact on the industry of 3,000 million pesos a year; they add that the amount may increase by another 2,800 million due to imported cement, based on "evidence" they do not identify, for about 5,800 million a year. The text declares it "essential to shield the formal market". The standard lasts six months, renewable only once, and its first transitory article declares it not enforceable "until there are sufficient Conformity Assessment Bodies, accredited and approved".
Ciudad & Sistemas Vivos
In April 2026 the second phase of Japan's amended logistics efficiency law took effect: every shipper that moved more than 90,000 tons in the previous fiscal year is designated a specified shipper, must appoint a logistics director—failure to do so is punishable by a fine—and must submit a medium- and long-term plan, updated every year, to make better use of each truck's load and reduce drivers' waiting and handling times. Reducing waiting is a best-efforts duty that becomes an order only if the government deems the measures insufficient. The first plan was due on October 31, 2026, and starting in July 2027 shippers must periodically report measured waiting times. In Mexico, NOM-087-SCT-2-2017 (an official Mexican standard), in force, regulates driving times and breaks: it counts loading and unloading as auxiliary activities of the driver and binds only the driver and the permit holder—which may be a shipper with its own fleet—not whoever hires a third party to haul its freight; the words "user" ("usuario"), "sender" ("remitente") and "waiting" ("espera") do not appear in its text. The draft that would replace it, published in October 2024, does not mention the shipper either and has not been published as a final standard.
Innovación & Negocios
On October 28, 2026, the DOF (Mexico's federal gazette) published the agreement of the Technical Committee of the Consejo Nacional de Normalización y Certificación de Competencias Laborales (CONOCER, the national council for job skills standards and certification), approved on September 24, that registers 71 competency standards: 61 with an EC code—54 new ones, from EC1830 to EC1883, and seven updates—and ten with an ECM code, among them "Cloud services with Huawei tools". Eight of the 71 are on artificial intelligence, seven of them aimed at micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Seven of those eight include a section on occupations "not contained in the Sistema Nacional de Clasificación de Ocupaciones" (Mexico's national occupational classification system), which lists "AI Prompt Developer", "AI Consultant for MSMEs" and "Digital Content Creator with AI". Two of them name commercial tools—ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Midjourney, Freepik—"or equivalents", and seven of the eight suggest being reviewed every two years.
Tecnologías Emergentes
On November 2, 2026, the Secretaría de Salud (Health Ministry) published in the DOF (Mexico's federal gazette) the guidelines for the disposition of residual plasma, which take effect thirty business days later and regulate the January 2026 amendment to the Ley General de Salud (General Health Law). They allow a public blood bank, through an agreement, or a private one, through a contract, to deliver the plasma left over from donations to a legal entity that manufactures plasma-derived products in exchange for "the in-kind benefit obtained from its disposition": the agreement sets the medicines and "the quantity to be returned based on the volume of residual plasma delivered". The plasma "shall not be exchanged for economic remuneration", and the donor's consent must state that it may be industrialized "on a non-profit basis by the Blood bank that obtains them". The medicines return through hospital pharmacies whose licenses must include "the line of sale or supply" of plasma-derived products. At the same time, article 7 provides that "under no circumstances" shall donations be promoted, "including exclusive plasma donation by apheresis, for specific industrialization purposes".
Innovación & Negocios