The Customs Department has announced that it will begin applying the Generalized Agreement on Trade Tariffs starting in June. The new valuation system will reduce under valuations by importers to a minimum. According to Franklin Nuñez, Asociación Dominicana de Agentes de Aduanas, a grouping of customs agents, the new system will strengthen Dominican foreign trade as it is applied in most other counties that are signatory to the GATT. Another of the benefits of the new system is that it will lessen the time needed for goods to clear customs as valuations will not be established at the discretion of the customs agent.