SLIM-RAFT: A Novel Fine-Tuning Approach to Improve Cross-Linguistic Performance for Mercosur Common Nomenclature

Abstract: Natural language processing (NLP) has seen significant advancements with the advent of LLMs. However, substantial improvements are still needed for languages other than English, especially for specific domains like the applications of Mercosur Common Nomenclature (NCM), a Brazilian Harmonized System (HS). To address this gap, this study uses TeenyTineLLaMA, a foundational Portuguese LLM, as an LLM source to implement the NCM application processing. Additionally, a simplified Retrieval-Augmented Fine-Tuning (RAFT) technique, termed SLIM-RAFT, is proposed for task-specific fine-tuning of LLMs. This approach retains the chain-of-thought (CoT) methodology for prompt development in a more concise and streamlined manner, utilizing brief and focused documents for training. The proposed model demonstrates an efficient and cost-effective alternative for fine-tuning smaller LLMs, significantly outperforming TeenyTineLLaMA and ChatGPT-4 in the same task. Although the research focuses on NCM applications, the methodology can be easily adapted for HS applications worldwide.