Ambassador Manuel Rocha, a current counselor on international trade and governmental affairs with the Steel Hector & Davis law firm, highlighted yesterday in his speech at the American Chamber of Commerce luncheon the unlikelihood that the Dominican Republic would be able to sign a bilateral trade agreement with the United States. He pointed out that the track record of the US shows their preference to negotiate in trade blocks. The president of the American Chamber of Commerce, Jorge Ivan Ramirez, said that the Bush administration has not formally notified the US Congress of its intention to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the Dominican Republic, a first step to begin talks.