Student marches in Santiago have drawn attention to the government?s intention to fragment protected-status land for commercial development, and now CONEP, the private business association, has taken a stance on the proposed Law of the Protected Areas. CONEP has called for a public hearing in the Chamber of Deputies to discuss the proposed law that would establish drastic reductions of the areas protected under former environmental laws. Touching on the same theme, the economist Federico Cuello, a former ambassador to the WTO ( the World Trade Organization), warned that the proposed modifications of protected areas might endanger the passage of tge Dominican Republic?s Free Trade Agreement with the United States, as the agreement contains pertinent clauses on commerce and the environment. Cuello explained the US congressional members already believe these clauses do not do enough for the environment, which they consider to be in at risk in places like the Dominican Republic. Cuello says that after creating the conditions for a Free Trade Agreement, the country is now creating the conditions for its rejection. Osmar Benitiz, one of the negotiating team on the Free Trade talks, told reporters he did not see how the proposed new laws would affect the FTA. He said that the DR had 40% of its territory in protected areas while the United States only had 8%. He felt that what the US legislators wanted were environmentally-friendly policies in areas where export products are manufactured, and added that the proposed areas are not within the production areas.