Maintaining Commodity Codes and Customs Tariffs

Commodity codes and customs tariff numbers are master data in SAP GTS. They are assigned to a combination of numbering schemes and numbering scheme content.

If you want to use SAP GTS in for both import and export processing, you have to define at least one numbering scheme and one numbering scheme content each:

• Export declaration or transit declaration: Numbering scheme/numbering scheme content for mapping a nomenclature of commodity codes usually for foreign trade statistics

• Import Declaration: Numbering scheme/numbering scheme content for mapping the national customs tariff of the importing country

To create or edit a numbering scheme for commodity codes in Customizing, choose SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Numbering Schemes → Commodity Codes → Define Numbering Scheme for Commodity Codes. To define numbering schemes for customs tariffs, choose SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Numbering Schemes → Tariff Numbers → Define Numbering Scheme of Tariff Numbers instead.

You define the corresponding numbering scheme contents using the menu path SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Numbering Schemes → Commodity Codes → Define Numbering Scheme Content for Commodity Codes and SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Numbering Schemes → Tariff Numbers → Define Numbering Scheme Content for Tariff Numbers.

The structure of the numbering scheme contents delivered corresponds to the actual structure of the nomenclature of goods or the respective customs tariff. If you decide to upload the commodity codes, you should check the formatting in one of the XML files of your data provider.

If your data provider structures the data differently, you should copy the delivered numbering scheme to the customer name space and adjust the copy accordingly. The same applies if you create a new numbering scheme for a customs tariff that is not contained in delivery Customizing.

The numbering scheme EUSTA (Commodity Codes - EU) contained in delivery Customizing represents the CN. This numbering scheme is assigned to the legal regulations for customs processing and for the transit procedure in different Member States (menu path: SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Numbering Schemes → Assign Numbering Schemes to Legal Regulations). The assignment of numbering schemes to legal regulations in Customs Management is required for classifying products in nomenclatures of commodity codes and customs tariffs.

Since the world of goods is constantly changing, the nomenclatures for commodity codes and customs tariffs are also subject to regular changes. For example, customs tariff numbers must be defined for new products. Other products disappear from the market as a result of technical innovations, making their customs tariff numbers superfluous. Therefore, once a year, the European Commission publishes the CN in its current form in the form of a Regulation. The updated version shall apply from 1 January of the following year. The TARIC is also subject to constant changes.

Data suppliers provide these updates in XML file form. First, you receive files for the upload of new and changed commodity codes or customs tariff numbers with which you update the corresponding numbering schemes in SAP GTS. Some data suppliers provide additional XML files for the exchange of obsolete numbers with valid numbers in the product master ("reclassification"). You upload these reclassification files to your SAP GTS system using the Reclassify Products XML-Based app. However, manual reclassification is also possible (Reclassify Products Manually app).

The upload of the current version of the CN or customs tariff automatically adjusts the validity of obsolete numbers in the respective numbering scheme content. After successful reclassification, the Classification tab of the product master records contains a history of the number assignments. This means that you can always see which commodity code or which customs tariff number was valid at a certain point in time.

If an obsolete number corresponds to exactly one new number, SAP GTS can reclassify the products independently. However, in quite frequent cases where a number is replaced by at least two other numbers, a competent user must make a decision. You select the number that applies in the future directly using the Reclassify Products XML-Based app.