ITDS Committee Suggests Submitting Universal Product Codes in Advance of Product Arrival to Help PGAs Assess Risk, Etc.

The product information codes discussed in the report are Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), also known in the U.S. as Universal Product Codes (UPCs).

Report Recommends Ways to Provide PGAs with More Specific Product Info via ACE

The report contains recommendations on ways to provide participating government agencies with more specific product information via ACE, as Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes provide insufficient information about most products for accurate admissibility assessment.

(Note that the GTIN does not replace the use of the HTS in ACE, but supplements the descriptive value of the HTS by identifying one specific product among the hundreds or thousands of products that have the same HTS code. The GTIN product reference can then be used to access more detailed information about this one product from the global catalog, provided information about this product has been published by the supplier.)

PIC Recommends Pilots Where GTINs Submitted in Advance of Product Arrival

The PIC recommends the piloting of a process to capture the GTINs of incoming products for one or more sample product sets.

GTINs would be obtained from the importer or supplier, ideally as an electronic file prior to shipment arrival. The importer or filer would report the GTIN and the number of cases of each product present in the shipment or in each shipping container.

Initial pilots could occur inside or outside of ACE. However, for PGAs to efficiently use the GTIN to identify incoming products, the ACE system would need to incorporate new data fields for the GTIN and other related product information fields in the ACE database.

The PIC adds that PGAs should determine what regulatory actions would be needed to collect GTINs. An assessment of the most efficient way to capture GTINs in the future and how the collection of GTINs might be integrated into existing collection requirements would also need to be done.

PIC Recommends Data Synchronization Pilot

The PIC also recommends a pilot of the use of data synchronization or a web service to obtain product information for the GTINs of sample product sets from the catalog known as the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN).

(The GDSN can provide a variety of descriptive information about the product, such as the product name, brand name, product description, and manufacturer. Additionally, the catalog can provide structured product characterization information in the form of a product characterization class code number and related product attributes.)

Initial pilots could be conducted outside of the ACE system by interested PGAs making ad hoc web queries to the GDSN. PGAs should determine whether a sufficient number of products from the sample product sets have been published in the GDSN to be useful in the admissions process.

(See PIC report for additional recommendations, PGA product information requirements, etc.)

¹The ITDS Board of Directors created the PIC to advise them on a method that will more clearly characterize traded goods to support the efficient and effective review, release, and statistical analysis of internationally traded products. Once identified, the PIC will work to develop a process within ACE/ITDS to collect and process this product information.

PIC report (posted 07/28/09, dated April 2009) available at http://www.itds.gov/linkhandler/itds/tsn/product_info_comm/leveraing.ctt/leveraing.pdf

ITDS summary of the report (posted 08/06/09, dated July 2009) available at http://www.itds.gov/linkhandler/itds/news/ecommerce_product_data.ctt/ecommerce_product_data.pdf