MEXICO CITY, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Mexican Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard on Monday said a planned review of the North American free trade agreement could begin in the second half of 2025.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) potentially offers "enormous opportunities" in areas that were not usually available to Mexican industries, the economy chief said during a seminar titled "Mexico-North America Trade Summit: beyond the USMCA," organized by the Employers' Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex).

According to Ebrard, the potential opportunities lie in the nearshoring trend, particularly in the wake of the U.S. new trade policy, which has not yet been fully defined.

"I would think what we have to do is dedicate ourselves to being the most competitive, the most organized, the most effective to participate in this nearshoring," he said.

Opportunities for Mexico also lie in the development of semiconductors, medical instruments and equipment, and in refining certain minerals such as copper, areas in which Mexico has traditionally had little participation, said the official.

"I think there is an immense opportunity, but it is not necessarily in the fields in which we are accustomed," Ebrard said.

The world is going through a process of building "a different system" for trade, he said, adding a system of comparative advantages with certain rules is seeing a "transition" to a system of "comparative disadvantages."

"That is, since there is a unilateral imposition of tariffs per country, then what determines your access to the market is how expensive it is to go to that market," he explained.

The three partners of the USMCA agreed in 2018 to review the terms of the agreement in 2026, but U.S. President Donald Trump has called for renegotiating the pact sooner than anticipated. ■