About
Where clothes are madeis being redrawn.
Cheap distance, stable tariffs and no questions asked held global apparel together for a generation. All three are gone. Merco is built for the trade that comes after.
- 01
For thirty years, the answer was Asia.
The deepest supply base in the world, the lowest unit price, and freight so cheap it barely showed on a costing sheet. A whole industry was built on the assumption that distance was free.
- 02
Then distance got a price.
Ports closed, container rates multiplied, and attacks in the Red Sea sent Asia–Europe ships around the Cape. Lead times stopped being a constant and became a line item, and a risk you carry in stock.
- 03
Tariffs stopped being background.
In 2025 the United States redrew its tariffs country by country, and the heaviest rates landed on the countries that make most of the world’s clothes. Where a garment is sewn is now a bet on policy.
- 04
Europe started asking who made it.
A ban on goods made with forced labour, due diligence written into law, product passports on the way for textiles. A cheap garment with no paper trail is turning from a margin into a liability.
- 05
And the Atlantic opened.
Colombia and Peru already ship clothing into the EU at zero duty. EU–Mercosur began applying in 2026 and walks the duty on Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay down to zero. The mills, the cotton, the wool and the sewing floors were always there.
The new map
Sourcing used to be about price. Now it is about certainty.
A brand no longer wins by finding the cheapest factory on the planet. It wins by knowing what an order will cost at its own door, when it will arrive, and that it will clear.
Why the south
Closer, cheaper at the border, and on paper.
0%
EU duty on clothing from Colombia and Peru today, under EU–Andean. The same jacket pays 12% from a country without an agreement.
2035
The year Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay reach zero under EU–Mercosur, in ten equal steps from 2026. Duty by origin.
No Suez
The route to Rotterdam runs up the Atlantic, not through the Red Sea. For US brands, Colombia is a few days’ sail from Miami, on a working day that lines up with New York’s.
What was missing
The factories were there. The door was not.
Medellín has sewn for the world for a century; Peru spins some of the finest cotton and alpaca there is. What a European or American buyer could not get was a way in: no index worth trusting, no price that included the border, no one holding the money in between.
A factory you can verify
Every factory on Merco is built from its own papers: registrations, certificates, what its floor can actually make.
A price that includes the border
Duty per HS code and origin, the proof that earns the rate, freight to your port. The number you see is the number you pay.
Money that moves with the goods
Payment is held and released by milestone, so neither side carries the other’s risk across an ocean.
Where we are
Amsterdam, the heart of European fashion.
Amsterdam
Many of the brands that dress Europe run their European business from here, and Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, is an hour away. Small enough that you will speak to one of us.
Medellín first
Colombia is the first corridor we are opening, and our first conversations with factories in the Aburrá valley are under way. It ships into the EU at zero duty today.
Five origins
Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay: the countries whose agreements with the EU we can put a number on. See the origins.
Where our work stops
Merco runs the workflow. The import stays yours.
The legal obligations of an importer do not move to a software company, and we will not pretend they do. The platform is built so you can discharge them.
- Final supplier selection and contracting
- EU customs import declarations
- Import duty and VAT payment
- Final compliance sign-off as EU operator of record
- Goods quality inspection and acceptance
The full split is in the business terms.
Tell us what you make.
If this corridor is wrong for your product we will say so. That answer is free, and faster than a pitch.