The National Private Business Council (CONEP) asked the government not to relegate the sectors affected by the proposed Free Trade Agreement to second-level priority. In a note called “The Effects of the FTA,” Elena Viyella de Paliza wrote that if the country has free industrial zones and tourism today, there is no reason to forget about those sectors that have been, for years, the economic backbone of the national economy.” According to the report in Hoy, Viyella de Paliza said that the Dominican Republic would be a better country if it could count on the three sectors (agriculture, sugar and industry) along with the industrial free zones.