The National Dialogue convened yesterday on the Santo Tomas Campus of the PUCMM in Santo Domingo. Under the coordination of the university’s rector, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, the Dialogue agreed to effect changes in the laws that govern the primary processes of the various political parties. With representatives of all of the major political parties present, as well as business, labor and industrial leaders, the National Dialogue agreed on the need to seek the ratification of the DR-CAFTA trade agreement, as well as the removal of the 25% tariff on soft drinks made with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Nunez Collado told reporters from Hoy and the Listin Diario that the National Dialogue had also agreed that the municipalities would receive 8.55% of the National Budget and not the 10% that they had requested. This compromise was agreed to by Interior and Police Minister Franklin Almeyda on the one hand, and the head of the Dominican Municipal League Amable Aristy Castro and Fausto Ruiz, the president of the Dominican Federation of Municipalities, on the other. The question of the heavy equipment that was assigned to the cities and towns by the previous government was also covered at the meeting. While the incumbent government had requested the return of this equipment to the authorities, a commission was designated yesterday to oversee the return of the equipment to the municipal governments.