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If you recall, June 2023 was filled with positive news: 4 Colombian children were miraculously found safe after surviving alone in the jungle for 40 days after their plane crashed; the Glastonbury music festival featured Arctic Monkeys, Guns 'n' Roses, and a surprise appearance from Foo Fighters; archaeologists in Pompeii uncovered a painting depicting what seemed to be the precursor of the pizza; South Koreans became one or two years younger as country dropped its traditional age-counting systems to align with international standards; the UN adopted the first-ever treaty to govern and protect international waters… and SAP released SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA 2023!
Within this version filled with functional and technical enhancements, there is one that I’d like to focus on today as I believe it is a hidden gem: Support for US Partner Government Agency Import Filing.
What is Partner Government Agency (PGA)?
A Partner Government Agency (PGA) is a US government agency that operates alongside the Customs and Border Protection Authority (CBP), which regulates the export and import of goods into the United States.
The Partner Government Agencies belong to various U.S departments such as the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Justice, the Department of Interior, the Department of the Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The PGA includes some of the following authorities:
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
- Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
- Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS)
- Federal Drug Administration (FDA)
- Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
- National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
- Enforcement and Compliance within the International Trade Association
- Office of Textiles and Apparel
- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF)
- Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
- Environmental Protection Agency Import Guide (EPA)
… and more!
Why are they important for US trade compliance?
Well, it’s pretty simple: products regulated by Partner Government Agencies often require licenses or other additional documentation, which is why many PGAs have their own import guides.
It’s the responsibility of the importer to ensure that all mandatory prerequisites are met for importing into the US territory. Failure to do so might lead the relevant agency denying the import… De facto leading the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Authority to reject allowing the products to be introduced into US trade.
How can SAP Global Trade Services help?
The PGA information which can be reported through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system is quite extensive and therefore organized in structures and fields.
Not all these structures and fields are supported by every authority, which is why each authority publishes an implementation guide with detailed instructions.
The product type determines which authorities regulate the import and this information can be derived from the foreign trade classification number of the product.
The Configurable PGA Record Maintenance activity in SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA 2023 allows organizations to maintain all required PGA information for a product for all authorities and programs according to the foreign trade classification number and relevance code.
This data is then automatically transferred to the customs declaration item and can be changed.
Note: The agency and program specific format definition of structures and fields is not shipped out-of-the-box so must be maintained by the PGA experts of the company.
A PGA dataset defines the information to be sent for a specific agency and program. When the data set is created, a tree with all mandatory records for this agency and program appears. By choosing a record, the available fields (data elements) are displayed, and the desired values can be entered:
Once configured, this feature in SAP Global Trade Services can help automate the process for meeting PGA requirements and reduce manual steps leading to inefficiencies and potential errors.
If you are looking for more details on this feature, I would suggest referring to the dedicated section of the SAP Help Portal: Partner Government Agency (PGA) | SAP Help Portal
There is also a blog post from our partner Pinary on this topic that is well worth reading: Navigating Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) with SAP GTS
And if you are interested in learning more about SAP solutions for Governance, Risk, and Compliance, feel free to fill-in the demo request form!
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