Senator Jose Hazim Frappier warned yesterday that without compensation for the productive sectors the Dominican Republic – Central American Free Trade Agreement with the US won’t be approved here, even if the US Congress approves it first, as reported in Hoy. He insisted that he is committed to defending local producers, in the same way the US and European countries do with their producers. He stated that a country cannot survive if it does not produce a major proportion of the food it needs. Producers in need of protection according to the Senator include not just sugar cane farmers, but also rice, poultry, pork and other important sectors even though they now only represent 3% of the GNP whereas 15 or 20 years ago they represented 12%.