The new facilities, spread out over an area of more than 2,000 square meters, were inaugurated on 18 February 2015 by the President of the Dominican Republic, Excmo. Lic. Danilo Medina Sanchez, and the Director of the Dominican Customs, Mr. Juan Fernando Fernandez, along with the presence also of civil, military and religious authorities as well as representatives from the private sector.

The new Customs Laboratory is fully operative and can be considered, in terms of equipment, as one of the most modern and sophisticated Customs Laboratories in the World, including microscopy, DNA analysis technology, FT-IR, ICP-MS, HPLC-TOF, etc. The new laboratory is intended to assist Dominican Customs with the correct collection of Customs duties and national taxes and also to serve as a reference for the private sector and the National Academy.

During the inauguration, Mr. Juan Fernando Fernandez, highlighted the importance of the Customs Laboratory, not only for the correct collection of customs duties and national taxes, but also for drug enforcement and the protection of society and the environment through the detection of potentially dangerous substances at the borders. He pointed out that the new Laboratory would be a scientific reference in the region.

Also present at the ceremony, a representative from the WCO's Tariff and Trade Directorate congratulated the Dominican Republic authorities for this initiative and emphasized the importance of Customs Laboratories, not only for HS classification purposes and trade facilitation, but also for the protection of citizens and the environment. He expressed the willingness of the WCO Secretariat to provide its assistance on the matter and thanked Dominican Customs for its continuous support to the WCO to implement its Capacity Building strategies in the Region.