1. Regulatory Content System Guide
  2. GTM Services Overview

GTM Services Overview

Restricted Party Screening

The United States of America and other regional, unilateral, and multilateral agencies enforce regulations that restrict businesses and people from conducting trade with specific foreign entities (individuals, companies, countries). These entities are referred to as Denied, Debarred, and/or Restricted Parties. Examples of these entities include but are not limited to known terrorists, organizations that fund terrorists, and parties guilty of trade violations. Typically, the restricted parties are mainly countries subject to embargoes, and persons, businesses, and organizations subject to financial sanctions. Periodically, these agencies publish lists of entities that are marked as restricted parties.

In order to adhere to the regulations, companies screen their party master data and transactions against these lists, which can be very time consuming and laborious. Furthermore, if a business ships goods to a restricted party, it could incur fines, penalties, and ultimately the loss of export privileges.

GTM provides the functionality to download these lists from third party data content providers and perform screening of involved parties against the lists of ‘Restricted’ parties identified by the government.

Product Classification

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, also known as the Harmonized System (HS) of tariff nomenclature, is an internationally standardized system of names and numbers to classify traded products. HS codes are used by customs authorities, statistical agencies, and other government regulatory bodies to monitor and control the import and export of commodities through:

  • Customs tariffs
  • Collection of international trade statistics
  • Rules of origin
  • Collection of internal taxes
  • Trade negotiations (e.g. the World Trade Organization schedules of tariff concessions)
  • Transport tariffs and statistics
  • Monitoring of controlled goods (e.g. wastes, narcotics, chemical weapons, ozone layer depleting substances, endangered species, etc.)
  • Areas of customs controls and procedures, including risk assessment, information technology and compliance

In addition, before you can export or import a product, you must identify your product’s proper Schedule B (for US exports) or Harmonized Schedule (HS) (for imports) number. This number must appear on both the export and the import documentation that accompanies a shipment.

Companies use HS codes to calculate the total landed cost of imported products and parts, and to identify selling and sourcing opportunities abroad. Companies also use harmonized tariffs to determine if their goods can take advantage of preferential trade programs and trade agreements. GTM helps you to download, update, or view product classification data and other related compliance elements for prompt and accurate customs filing.

Some products (such as munitions and computer hardware) exported from the United States require an export license from either the U.S. Department of Commerce or another U.S. agency like the State Department. Before you can determine whether your product requires an export license, you must investigate if your product has an Export Control Classification Number (ECCN).

Finally, some countries also provide munitions lists, which may include services and technology that are related to defense or space. In some instances, customers may also need to assign munitions list numbers to their items.

Trade Agreements and Rules of Origin

Trade agreements are treaties/terms involving taxes and tariffs for cross-border shipments. Two or more countries agree upon trade agreements to reduce their own customs duties and those of their customers.

Rules of origin are available for trade agreements across the globe and support rule types such as tariff shift, regional value content method, de minimis, HS inclusion, HS exclusion, and wholly obtained goods. You can download trade agreements and Rules of Origin data from third party content providers.

GTM provides features that help you to determine if goods you manufacture qualify for trade agreements based on the associated Rules of Origin. If your finished goods qualify for a trade agreement, you can produce the appropriate certificates of origin and provide them to your customers. This results in a cost-effective business transaction.