CBP Seeks Approval to Expand Identifiers in GBI Program
CBP will soon seek Office of Management and Budget approval for a series of recently announced changes to its Global Business Identifier pilot, according to a notice released May 27. That includes an expansion of identifiers used in the pilot, as well as of entities involved. Comments are due July 28, and summaries of the comments will be included along with the submission to OMB.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The first is a programming change with the GBI Enrollment database allowing the trade to submit one or more of the unique GBI’s for a supply chain entity, as opposed to all three, as previously approved and announced in July 2023 (see 2304240042).
"Without this programming change, if all three global identifiers are not provided at enrollment for a specific party, the system will continue to reject the enrollment transaction," CBP said. "This programming change will take place upon approval of this information collection."
A second change would update trade participants' ability to modify or change a previous enrollment through updating or adding additional GBI numbers, which could include a variety of global identifier types that are used for different parts of the supply chain. CBP says this change "would provide more flexibility and utility to GBI participants by enabling GBI numbers to be provided voluntarily when they are known and encourages participants to obtain other GBI numbers as well as keep supply chain information current because they can easily add, delete, and modify GBI numbers associated to an enrollment."
A third change would expand the available GBI supply chain entity party types in the GBI Test from the original six optional parties (Manufacturer, Shipper, Seller, Exporter, Distributor, Packager), to include two new parties: "Intermediary" and "Source,” along with optional free text fields for all the parties that will allow filers to voluntarily input additional descriptions and information about the specific party type or the underlying entity. These party types and the free text fields would be made available in the GBI Enrollment database, as well as in ACE Cargo Release, CBP said. CBP announced the additional entity types in January (see 2501140008).
"Collectively, the updates aim to enhance upstream supply chain traceability and visibility while addressing the increasing complexity of global trade supply chains. All participation and data is voluntary," CBP said.
Lastly, CBP said it is working to add new voluntary GBI identifiers, beginning with the Altana ID (ALTA) maintained by Altana, as also announced in January. The voluntary ALTA ID, which would be offered to the government "at no cost," could offer "comprehensive insights across a product’s supply chain, thereby enhancing traceability for CBP[,] which may translate to facilitation benefits and reduced industry costs," CBP said. CBP has been working to create an ALTA GBI field in ACE, the agency added.
"The addition of the ALTA identifier alongside the current GBI identifiers will widen participants’ choices and allow CBP to continue to evaluate the breadth and veracity of entity and supply chain information embedded within different types of identifier solutions already being leveraged by trade industry traceability stewards," CBP said. "It will also contribute to CBP’s ongoing exploration of how traced supply chain information may be ingested and operationalized for risk management and facilitation purposes."
CBP says these adjustments would be considered as non-substantive changes to its data collection.
The GBI program seeks to designate businesses with an identifier in order to improve the U.S. government's ability to identify high-risk shipments and facilitate legitimate trade, according to a May 2022 CBP release about a pilot program to test the concept. These unique business identifiers, which incorporate shipper, seller and manufacturer data, were designed to replace the Manufacturer/Shipper Identification (MID) number. However, that MID number only includes the importer's name and address, and it isn't a managed, unique identifier.