The U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that in their 2020 fiscal year, they had processed 32.8 million import entries and seized $1.3 billion worth of products with intellectual property rights violations. It should be underscored that every shipment that is imported to the U.S. is required to have a Manufacturer Identification Number (MID). Though MID is a universal number for all imports, CBP felt that it lacks the data quality, data richness, and uniqueness required by the U.S. Government to equip their supply chain with accurate insights.

In a move to minimize risk management challenges, the CBP is introducing a Global Business Identifier (GBI) Initiative.

What is the Global Business Identifier Initiative?

According to the CBP, the GBI Initiative is an interagency trade transformation project to establish a single identifier solution. This is a unique identifier that will capture the complete shipper/seller and manufacturer information and will eliminate the matter of having multiple companies being assigned the same MID.

Its objectives also include identification of high-risk shipments and facilitation of legitimate trade, creation of a “common language” between the U.S. Government and Trade, and improvement of data quality and efficiency for identification, enforcement, and risk assessments.

From more than fifty unique entity identification systems used by the U.S. Government, there are three globally used identifiers being considered for the GBI solution:

  1. Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) – a 20-digit alphanumeric identifier with inherent reference data elements unique to a legal entity.
  2. Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) – a 9-digit numeric and non-indicative identifier that records unique business establishments with a library of over two hundred reference data elements.
  3. Global Location Number (GLN) – a 13-digit numeric identifier with varying sets of underlying reference data elements that are customizable to location, function, and operations.

These global identifiers will distinctly identify the main legal identity and ownership, specific business and global locations, and supply chain roles and functions. Additionally, it will be evaluated for the eight GBI core competencies, namely: globally unique, separate legal entities, location and function-specific, tracks supply chain roles, managed for accuracy, oversight and governance, data sharing, and internationally recognized.

Initially, the CBP will assess the proposed solution with an Evaluative Proof of Concept (EPoC). This will require every volunteer trade participant to submit all three identifiers (LEI, GLN, DUNS) for the manufacturer/producer, seller, and shipper. And it will cover shipments from countries of origin specifically from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and then from other countries of interest such as China, France, Mexico, Vietnam, Italy, and Singapore. The EPoC also comprises six groups of commodities, such as alcoholic beverages, medical devices, personal items, seafood, toys, and U.S. goods returned.

The CBP’s GBI Initiative could prove to have an enormous impact on organizations that have existing master data for hundreds of vendors in their customers’ SAP GTS systems. If this is the case, some third-party providers can help in simplifying things that involve integrations, SAP deployments, and mass updates.

Your Trusted “TRADEblazing Partner”

The success of your SAP GTS project depends on who your implementation partner is. As your SAP GTS implementation partner, Ropaar will help tailor-make the right SAP GTS project approach to align with your unique supply chain challenges. We will continuously innovate your Global Trade Management as your business needs change.

To learn more about our services, talk to our team of SAP experts today!