Aiming at the problem that it is quite different for the design of architecture lightning protection systems among Mexican NOM standard and Chinese standard GB 50057 and American standard NFPA780,we analyze the lightning risk assessment,annual threat of occurrence,the maximum annual threat which can be withstood by buildings,external lightning protection system,air terminal,down conductors,grounding system by comparing Mexican,Chinese and American standards based on a container terminal project in Mexico,and obtain the main differences among the three standards and the design steps of lightning protection system.The results show that it is required by NOM to decide whether need to set up an external lightning protection system based on comparing the annual threat of occurrence with the specified allowable frequency of threats,and the classification method provided by the Chinese standard is easy to implement with consideration of risk weight,and the lightning risk assessment required by American standard is more complex.