An editorial today in El Caribe newspaper highlights the incongruencies between the ministries of Industry & Commerce and Foreign Affairs. "The Dominican delegation, on one side, travels with what appears to be a total lack of coordination and strategy. While we haven’t yet even ensured the start of the timid free trade agreements signed with Central America and Caricom, our Minister of Industry and Commerce announces that our President has authorized him to negotiate, Chile-style, a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States, that will undoubtedly appreciate the gesture, because this is to their advantage as it weakens Brazil’s position. The rest of the cabinet remains silent and an astonished private sector does not know if it should take the matter seriously since most of our imports come from the US. This agreement would mean that the Customs House would practically stop collecting revenues." The editorial writer continues: "Mexico will offer us something in Quebec, in exchange for us delivering to them the votes we have secured for a seat in the UN Security Council. But this will not include their support so that Washington may grant us, in migration matters, the same treatment that President Fox has been seeking for the Mexicans."
