Reporters from El Caribe say that the Dominican Republic negotiating team was stopped dead in its tracks when the United States team placed a position paper on the table that repeated the terms of the Central American Free Trade Agreement and requested that 85% of US exports be received with no taxes. According to the text of the report, the US negotiators “informed their counterparts of their intention to have tariffs removed from 85% of the products traded between the two countries as soon as the agreement enters into effect in 2005.” Dominican farm producers were in agreement that 49% of the products were to be affected at the beginning of the agreement. One headline in El Caribe’s economic section says that the DR negotiators were “disappointed” at the outcome of the first day’s talks. The farming sector wants to protect its garlic, onions, sugar, corn, beans, rice, milk, poultry, beef and pork, as part of the “technical adjustments” needed to make the agreement viable for Dominican farmers. Although the Free Trade Agreement is supposedly based on the already approved accords under the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the DR negotiating team still does not have a copy of that document because the US negotiators are reportedly awaiting Costa Rica’s adhesion to the treaty, expected by 15 January. Frank Castillo, the vice-president of the National Council of Business (Conep), told reporters that the absence of this documentation has held up the talks. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick is expected to bring the agreement with him to the talks today. He arrived yesterday for a 24-hour visit.