Classifying Products

The assignment of dual-use items, export control classification numbers (ECCNs), commodity codes, or customs tariff numbers to products is referred to as ''classification'' in the context of international trade.

Regardless of whether you opt for manual maintenance or purchase from a data provider, you have to define numbering schemes for all relevant nomenclatures in Customizing for your SAP GTS system.

Any numbering scheme that is actively used must be assigned to at least one legal regulation. For example, the numbering scheme representing the CCL is linked to legal regulation EAR and the numbering scheme EUSTA representing the CN is linked to all legal regulations provided in delivery Customizing for customs processing in the EU. When you start the classification apps, you specify a legal regulation to identify the nomenclature on which the assignment of codes or numbers is based.

To classify products for the legal control, you use the Classify Products - Legal Control app in the Product & Classification space on the Master Data - Classification page. To classify products for Customs Management, you use the Classify Products app on the same page.

If you need commodity codes and their assignment to products in your SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA feeder system for Intrastat declarations or for printing the information on the commercial invoice, you can retransfer these data from SAP GTS.

You start the process in SAP GTS with an initial transfer of the existing commodity codes and their product assignment using program /SAPSLL/COMCO_RETRANSFER_INIT. In SAP ECC, this program fills a worklist that you can display using transaction code /SAPSLL/SWNAV_DISP. You then execute program /SAPSLL/STAWN_RETRANSFER_R3. This program posts the new commodity codes and their assignment to materials to the SAP ECC system’s database.

After the initial transfer of commodity codes and classification, you can execute the program /SAPSLL/COMCO_RETRANSFER. However, the programs /SAPSLL/STAWN_RETRANSFER_R3 and /SAPSLL/COMCO_RETRANSFER are supposed to be scheduled as batch jobs in SAP GTS and SAP ECC respectively.

If your feeder system is SAP S/4HANA, the commodity codes retransferred from SAP GTS are posted directly to the database.

Since the product world is constantly changing, the HS is also subject to regular changes. The WCO revises the HS every five years. Nomenclatures that are based on the HS change at much shorter intervals. For example, new commodity codes or customs tariff numbers must be defined for new products. Other products disappear from the market in the course of technical innovations, so that their commodity codes or customs tariff numbers become superfluous.

Data providers that sell nomenclatures for upload to SAP GTS provide such updates in file form. First, you have to upload new and changed commodity codes or customs tariff numbers to update the respective numbering schemes. There is usually a separate file for the exchange of obsolete codes, numbers with valid codes, or numbers in the product master (reclassification). You upload this reclassification file to your SAP GTS system using the Reclassify Products - XML-based app.

If an obsolete code or number corresponds to exactly one new code or number, SAP GTS can independently reclassify the products. However, in the common cases where one code or number is replaced by at least two other codes or numbers, a knowledgeable user must make a decision. You can select the code or number that will apply in the future in the Reclassify Products - XML-based app.