CBP Office of Trade begins test phase to streamline supply chain insights.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will collaborate with 13 partner government agencies to deploy a Global Business Identifier (GBI) pilot program that will test the concept of a single business identifier solution to improve the US Government’s ability to efficiently identify high-risk shipments and facilitate legitimate trade.
Through the GBI Evaluative Proof of Concept (EPoC), volunteers from the trade community will provide CBP with entity identifier codes, used widely in various industries, to allow more comprehensive insight into shipper, seller, and manufacturer data.
The pilot seeks to modernize trade processes by evaluating unique business identifiers or a combination of identifiers to replace, at a future point, the decades-old Manufacturer/Shipper Identification (MID) number currently used to track customs information, which only includes importer name and address and is not a managed, unique identifier.
Through the pilot, industry volunteers will submit three entity identifiers to CBP – Data Universal Numbering System, Global Location Number, and Legal Entity Identifier - in addition to the MID. CBP will then evaluate the optimal combination of identifiers to capture critical data including the main legal entity, specific business locations, and supply chain roles while optimizing GBI design, usability, and scope.
The GBI EPoC offers the potential for CBP, and other U.S. partner government agencies with equities at the border, to achieve greater visibility into U.S. supply chains – enhancing CBP’s enforcement capabilities while facilitating clearance of fair and legal trade.
“The complexity of modern, global supply chains requires innovative solutions to increase transparency. Our hope for this pilot program is that it will give us a more complete picture of goods making their way into the U.S. so that we can focus enforcement efforts on high-risk shipments while ensuring the free flow of legal trade that supports our economy,” said AnnMarie R. Highsmith, Executive Assistant Commissioner, CBP Office of Trade. “With the GBI pilot, we expect improved data quality, industry cost and time savings, streamlined supply chain tracking, and increased protection from counterfeiting – wins for both the trade community and the U.S. government.”
The GBI is a priority initiative for the Border Interagency Executive Council (BIEC), an executive advisory board that assists federal agencies in their efforts to enhance coordination across customs, transport security, health and safety, sanitary, conservation, trade, and phytosanitary agencies with border management authorities and responsibilities to measurably improve supply chain processes and the identification of illicit and non-compliant shipments. This pilot represents the first public facing BIEC initiative since core functionality completion for the Automated Commercial Environment in 2017.
View the Federal Register Notice for instructions on how trade participants can register. More information on the GBI can be found on the Global Business Identifier Fact Sheet page.
Follow the CBP Office of Trade on Twitter@CBPTradeGov.