El Siglo newspaper reported on the conflict between the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the private sector and other government departments regarding Free Trade Agreement negotiations. The sectors demand transparency, and complain that the Ministry is keeping in secret the advances in negotiations. In the past, the negotiations were handled by the National Commission for Trade Negotiations (CNNC) which had its base in the Ministry of Foreign Relations. For the first 45 days of the government, when the Ministry of Foreign Relations was in charge of negotiations, these were held openly and decisions reached by consensus of all parties. This continued with the style that led to the negotiation of the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement, as well as others in the past. After President Hipólito Mejía assigned the responsibility of these negotiations to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, these have become a mystery.
