Mickey Ceara Hatton suggests in the Listin Diario’s economic section today that the Dominican Republic should hold off further talks on the free trade agreement with the United States. He reasons that because the Dominican delegation is working against the clock, there is not enough time to completely analyze all the ramifications, especially during an election period with all its surrounding uncertainties. Ceara Hatton says that a commercial treaty would imply a “brutal reform” within the framework of a macroeconomic crisis and a huge reduction in income from tariffs. One of his most telling arguments is that the added value of a new free trade agreement would be approximately zero, as almost 100% of Dominican goods entering the United States do so duty-free, anyway. Because the ratification of such an agreement is a commitment that works two ways, Ceara Hatton says that a structural reform would be needed to comply with the agreement and “we”, the Dominican side, do not know all the implications of a two-way stream of products. The economist adds that even though much of the process would favor the industrial free trade zones, these industrial hubs only represent between 2% to 10% of the GDP, leading Ceara Hatton, and others, to wonder “What happens to the other 90%?”