In a speech the Dominican ambassador before the Government of the United States, Bernardo Vega wrote on occasion of the swearing in of the new board of the Association of Free Zone Industries of Santiago, the ambassador addressed the Dominican comparative advantages and the exports situation of the future. During his talk, which had to be read by Manuel José Cabral, when the ambassador was absent due to health reasons, Vega highlighted that he doubts that the Americas will sign a free trade agreement by year 2005. He said it took Europe 40 years to reach economic integration. He said that the U.S. President has not received the congressional go ahead to negotiate any new free trade agreements with Latin American countries. He said that Brazil, the second most important country of the region has not shown much enthusiasm given the extraordinary size of its domestic market. Neither is Mexico very interested in pushing ahead the regional free trade agreement since it already has a free trade agreement with the U.S. Vega said that what is likely to occur is that the Mercosur trade agreement will continue to expand, and that the member countries may sign a free trade agreement with Canada, as Chile has already done. Furthermore, he said that U.S. companies could establish their factories within Mercosur countries and then be able to export freely in the region. In his analysis, he said amidst all these perspectives, and those of the signing of a free trade agreement between South American countries and the Grupo Andino with the North American Free Trade Agreement, the DR should ask itself what strategy should the Caribbean and Central America follow. He said the region will be like a piece of ham between two very large slices of bread. In his opinion, President Leonel Fernández’s strategy of converting the DR into a bridge between Central America and the Caribbean makes sense. He said the integration scheme would later include the Group of Three — Mexico , Colombia and Venezuela.
