Using Legal Regulations in Processes

A two-step activation always follows the definition of a new legal regulation and the decision to use one of the legal regulations delivered:

1. General activation of the legal regulation

   (Where do the legal provisions mapped with the legal regulation apply?)

2. Specific activation of the legal regulation for an application area

   (Which application area uses the legal regulation and to what extent?)

You can activate a legal regulation for validity in a specific country. As a rule, this type of activation is appropriate to map national legislation. EU regulations, however, directly apply in all Member States. You can therefore activate the legal regulation that summarizes the country-specific embargo regulations of the EU for a country group representing the EU.

In Customizing for the SAP GTS system, you can freely define country groups and assign countries to them in any combination (menu path: SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Legal Regulations → Define Country Group and → Assign Countries to Country Group respectively).

You can also activate legal regulations for combinations of countries or country groups.

You activate a legal regulation in general in the cross-application-area settings of SAP GTS Customizing (menu path: SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Legal Regulations → Activate Legal Regulations at Country/Country Group Level). The views for the specific activation of legal regulations for specific application areas of Compliance Management are located in the relevant Customizing sections for Compliance Management.

Menu paths:

• SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → Compliance Management → Embargo Checks → Activate Legal Regulations
• SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → Compliance Management → Sanctioned Party List Screenings → Activate Legal Regulations
• SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → Compliance Management → Legal Controls → Activate Legal Regulations

From the general activation, SAP GTS adopts the country or country group, or combinations of both. Compliance Management and Preference Management differentiate between goods movements within the EU (receipts and dispatches) and third-country transactions (imports and exports). The option of having domestic transactions checked in addition to cross-border goods movements is primarily intended for sanctioned party list screening.

After replicating the feeder system document data, SAP GTS attempts to determine at least one legal regulation for each application area. In Compliance Management and Preference Management, the plant of the feeder system document item is decisive for the determination of legal regulations. In Customs Management, the company code assumes this role.

In Compliance Management and Preference Management, SAP GTS takes the destination country of the import or the departure country of the export from the address of the business partner in the "Legal Unit" role that is assigned to the plant in the mapping of the organizational structures. Depending on the determination procedure for determining legal regulations, the system then determines the legal regulation for the trade compliance checks in the relevant application area.

Delivery Customizing contains a determination procedure for each of the nine application areas that are part of SAP GTS (menu path: SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Legal Regulations → Define Determination Procedure for Active Legal Regulations).

Each determination procedure contains at least one determination strategy.

The six determination strategies available for selection are rooted in the program code:

• ALRG01 (Det. Legal Regulation at Country Level)

• ALRG02 (Det. Legal Regulation at Country/Country Level)

• ALRG03 (Det. Legal Regulation at Country/Country Group Level)

• ALRG11 (Det. Legal Regulation at Country Group Level)

• ALRG12 (Det. Legal Regulation at Country Group/Country Level)

• ALRG13 (Det. Legal Regulation at Country Group/Country Group Level)

If a determination procedure contains several determination strategies, sequence numbers define the access sequence. In the details of the determination procedure, you choose between exclusive access (Determination Using First Successful Strategy) and determination of multiple legal regulations (Determination Across All Strategies).

The determination strategies ALRG02, ALRG03, ALRG12, and ALRG13 are suitable for mapping prohibitions and restrictions that individual countries or country groups have defined exclusively in relation to certain other countries or country groups. However, if legal norms apply regardless of the destination country of the export, it is usually sufficient to determine the corresponding legal regulations using the determination strategies ALRG01 or ALRG11.

If you opt for determination strategies ALRG02, ALRG03, ALRG12, or ALRG13, you must assign a partner group for import or, as the case may be, for export. The system uses this partner group to identify the country or country group for departure and destination respectively. If, for example, a legal regulation is intended for export control, the system determines the country of destination from the address of the business partner in the export document. If several business partners are involved in the export, the access sequence in the partner group assigned to the determination strategy decides on the relevant partner function (ultimate consignee, for example).