The results of the public consultations for the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) revealed that this trade agreement has been beneficial for the three countries that comprise it and that it should continue , as indicated by Marcelo Ebrard, head of the Ministry of Economy (SE) .
During the presentation of the results of the consultations, which took place between September and November 2025 and involved companies, various chambers of commerce, and more than 2,900 questionnaires, 78.5% of participants indicated that the USMCA is “positive or very positive” in an overall assessment . On average, the percentage of people who considered it positive was 84% by sector and 75.9% by state.
Ebrard indicated that the results show a very broad agreement, but also highlight areas of concern. “Asymmetries, such as a labor mechanism, and other concerns related to unilateral measures, such as the application of tariffs under regulation 232 or any other regulation, like 301, which ultimately violate the treaty.”
He pointed out that there is another very important conclusion from the consultations, which is the principle of certainty in decisions among the three countries, and indicated that the objective of the consultations is to be ready for the start of talks with the United States – since the first round of bilateral meetings between Mexico and the United States will begin on March 16th to review the trade agreement – in which they will address reducing North America’s dependence on other regions of the world, rules of origin, and economic security .
“They raised 54 points of concern, as you know. We raised 12, and we have already resolved most of the 54. Of the 12, I hope to resolve the remaining ones soon, which are related to steel, the automotive industry, and the infamous 25% on non-USMCA compliance, which has now been reduced,” the federal official recalled.
Ebrard also announced that Mexico and Canada will begin bilateral talks in May on the review of the USMCA.
For his part, Vidal Llerenas Morales, Undersecretary of Industry and Commerce of the SE, emphasized that 30 sectoral roundtables participated in the consultations, where all economic sectors were consulted, and one roundtable was held in each of the federal entities of the country.
He said that thanks to the trilateral agreement, a mutually beneficial trade relationship is maintained. “Mexican exports to the United States include, on average, 40% of inputs from that country, and Mexico is the leading exporter to and importer from the United States.”
He stressed that the rules of origin that will be discussed (starting next week) and those that currently exist must promote national integration, but also allow competition with other regions of the world and contribute to improving the country’s production processes.
“To say that in this exercise we have carried out, we have a bloc that integrates more than 500 million consumers and that it is basically 30% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is a deep productive integration. In 2024, Mexico’s trade with the USMCA countries exceeded 800 billion dollars, 2.2 billion dollars per day and 1.5 million dollars per minute,” he emphasized.
He considered it necessary to better integrate the southern regions of the country into the entire North American production chain, and explained that the northern states are the most integrated and focused on manufacturing and exporting.
“The central and Bajío regions maintain an export relationship of agricultural and manufactured products, and the southeastern states have less economic integration that we have to overcome and that is one of the pending challenges,” he noted.
Luis Rosendo Gutiérrez, Undersecretary of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Economy, explained that the consultations were part of a process undertaken to ensure a successful outcome on July 1st . He stated that the results confirm a broad consensus and the need to maintain the USMCA, although there are elements that can be strengthened, “and that is what we will focus on.”
In that regard, he announced that a delegation will travel to Washington DC next week to begin the permanent work of the USMCA negotiation tables during the week of March 16.
Among the topics they will review, initially with the United States government, but later including Canada, he said are rules of origin, strengthening supply chains , and “everything we can start producing in our region that we are currently importing from Asia.”
“When we talk about this topic, it might seem somewhat abstract (strengthening supply chains), but when there is a Strait of Hormuz that today puts global logistics at risk, what we can have in our region is resilience and economic security; so that if we need a chip to be able to produce what our electronics export industry produces, we can strengthen the chains and not be dependent on what is being produced today in other parts of the world,” he emphasized.
In her participation, Altagracia Gómez Sierra, coordinator of the Advisory Council for Economic, Regional and Relocation Development, agreed that the results of the consultations form a consensus for the USMCA to continue.
He recalled that the Mexico Plan speaks not only of reducing dependence or substituting imports, but also of developing local suppliers and producing with more added value.
“For the Mexico Plan, we have two goals: for goods from national industry, such as textiles, footwear, and toys, we want to reach 50 percent. For global supply chains, such as automotive, aerospace, and pharmaceuticals, we want an increase of at least 15 percent,” he said.
Graciela Márquez, president of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) , explained that the consultations were enriched by the contributions of people belonging to companies, chambers, unions, state governments and academia from all over the country.
“The report presented today synthesizes these voices and organizes them as an empirical basis for the national discussion on the future of the agreement,” he emphasized.
According to the document outlining the results of the consultations, certainty, sustainability, and competitiveness should be the guiding principles of Mexico’s position for the review of the USMCA.
Sectoral consultations on services, tourism, automotive, heavy vehicles, electronics, steel, mining and energy agreed that the country has the conditions to attract investments in multimodal infrastructure, storage, transport and high value-added services.
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