The news for the agricultural sector continues to be gloomy, with very few Dominican products said to be on the FTA list of products due for removal of trade tariffs, according to economist Frederic Emam Zade in Hoy newspaper. Out of 8,000 products on the list, just 600 are of Dominican origin – less than 10% – according to Emam Zade, who called for the removal of tariffs on imported cars, which make up 30% of customs payments by Dominicans. All in all, concludes Emam Zade, it is not so important how many products are tariff-free, but which ones. In other news, the price of agricultural fertilizers is reported to have gone up by as much as 90%, as a result of the peso devaluation and the new taxes. Consequently, many agricultural firms are reported to be going out of business. The farmers may have the last laugh, however; their resistance to the Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiated with the US may result in deadlock. The sticking point for the farmers is that the import of chicken drumsticks and thighs into the DR from the US would threaten the domestic poultry sector. In today’s Diario Libre, a representative of the Dominican poultry production sector is quoted as saying that they hope the DR does not give in on the chicken leg issue. The newspaper reveals that at a lunch for the US negotiator Regina Vargo, chicken was served but at the end of the meal the chicken legs remained on the plates uneaten.