Members of the Dominican business community met with members of the Executive Committee on Commercial Policy to express their views on the free trade agreement now in the works between the Dominican Republic and the United States. William Malamud, vice-president of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic, Manuel Enrique Tavares and Manuel Alejandro Grullon, president of the Banco Popular Dominicano met with representatives of the US Office of the United States Trade Representative and expressed their support for the Free Trade Agreement. Malamud said that such an accord would promote a more efficient government and greater transparency in the public and private sectors. Grullon said that stronger commercial and economic ties would result, and Tavares, the head of the Itabo Free Zone said that the Free Zone experiment in the Dominican Republic proved that the country could compete on the world market. Labor representatives from both countries were also at the meeting and so were members of the International Intellectual Property Association. Other special interest groups that were present were the Association of Clothing and Shoe Manufacturers of the US and the Federation of Milk Producers of the US.