Members of the Agribusiness Emergency Committee said yesterday that the DR will have two years to ratify the DR-CAFTA after it is approved by the US Congress without losing any of its benefits or obligations, as reported in Hoy. They want the views of the national productive sector to be taken into account before ratifying the treaty. Enriquillo Rivas, of the Dominican Poultry Association, and Luis Viyella, coordinator of the committee are rejecting pressures being placed on Dominican Congress to ratify the treaty as soon as possible with the argument that prior approval in the DR might speed things up in the US. Viyella believes that the DR should wait two years to be able to make the adjustments and prepare for the protection of the national productive sector. Rivas sustains that competitiveness must be assured or else the DR will receive an overwhelming trade imbalance that will create high levels of unemployment. He says this should be resolved locally, as was done in Argentina and Mexico, to compete in their regions and with the US.