According to EFE press agency, the DR and Central America must increase their lobbying in the US to face the difficult task of assuring the 218 votes required for the DR-CAFTA to be ratified by the House of Representatives. Salvadoran Ambassador to Washington Rene Leon warned, “It is not time to feel victorious because victory is not yet assured. The vote will be extremely difficult to reach.”
The Salvadoran ambassador, who has been leading the group of Central American ambassadors in the task of finding support among US politicians, sustains that 35 more votes are needed for the FTA to be ratified with the minimum number of votes.
The US Senate passed the DR-CAFTA last 30 June with a 54 to 45 vote in favor. But to be ratified, the FTA must be passed by the House of Representatives with a required minimum of half plus one of the 435 members, that is, 218 votes.
The White House is doing lobbying of its own in favor of the agreement. Meanwhile, DR Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso has warned the country will study the agreement well before ratifying it, after the US Embassy here asked that it be passed “as soon as possible”. Morales said, “patience and prudence are the best advisors. It may be a rush for them, but we need to look after the interests of the DR.”