SAP GTS Content
Sanctions Screening, Tariffs & FTA Rules
SAP Global Trade Services (GTS) is SAP’s solution for trade compliance, product classification and customs management. It provides a foundation for managing export controls, customs compliance, and trade regulations, allowing you to screen for denied parties and classify your products within your trade processes.
Your SAP ERP system can act like a feeder to SAP GTS, providing the master data and logistics documents it needs to run your trade processes. That information flows into SAP GTS, where configured checks can run and a status can be sent back. If a check results in a block, the relevant document can be held for review by your trade compliance team, depending on how your systems are configured.
SAP GTS helps address several questions during a trade transaction. Is a party subject to restrictions? Does a product require an export license for its destination? Which tariff code and duty rate may apply? Could an import qualify for preferential duty under a free trade agreement (FTA)?
SAP GTS uses transaction information, assigned product classifications, configured rules and regulatory reference data to support these processes. The reliability of the result depends on the quality of each of those inputs, including the regulatory content behind the check.
Key Takeaways
• SAP GTS depends on the data you feed into the system. GTS runs the checks, but your trade content, product classifications and business partner records determine whether those checks produce reliable results.
• There are three areas which trade content covers. Party content includes sanctions and denied party lists such as the OFAC SDN, EU and UK lists. Product content includes HS and HTS tariff codes, duty rates and export control lists.
• A trade content provider supplies reference content, but your company assigns the tariff codes and export control classifications such as ECCNs. A wrong code will lead to incorrect duty calculations, rejected declarations or a missed export license requirement.
• Effective screening relies on lists relevant to your business, daily list updates and tuned match thresholds
• You reduce false positives through five levers: well-structured list content, SAP GTS indexing and search tuning, tested match thresholds, secondary identifiers such as country and address, and a process to revisit previously cleared matches when data changes.
The Relationship Between SAP GTS and Trade Content
Trade Content
Trade content is the regulatory reference data SAP GTS uses to support screening and other trade compliance processes. SAP GTS provides the tools to screen, classify, and manage customs processes, but those tools need accurate, complete, well-structured and current reference data.
• Who is on a sanctions list?
• What tariff code and duty rate apply in a particular country?
• Which products may require an export license for China?
• What rules of origin apply to a free trade agreement?
If your trade content is incomplete, inaccurate or out of date, the resulting checks and decisions may be unreliable. Trade content falls into several related categories, including party, product and FTA content. Party content covers sanctioned, denied and restricted party lists such as the OFAC SDN list, the EU consolidated list and the UK sanctions list. Product content includes data such as tariff nomenclatures (HS and HTS codes), duty rates, and export control lists such as the US Commerce Control List and the EU dual use list. FTA content includes rules of origin used to support preference processes.
Governments add and remove entities from lists and revise tariff schedules regularly. Keeping pace matters, but speed alone is not enough. Updates must also be interpreted correctly, mapped to the right records and checked before they are delivered. When choosing a content provider, consider the breadth of coverage, the accuracy and completeness of the data, its quality controls, and how promptly verified changes reach your SAP GTS environment.
Classification Data
The purpose of product classification is to identify goods under the applicable tariff and export control systems. Those classifications support customs declarations, duty determination, export license checks and assessments of potential FTA benefits.
A product description such as “sensor module” may not contain enough detail to determine the applicable tariff treatment or export controls. Classification provides a standardized starting point, but selecting the correct code still requires an accurate understanding of the product and the relevant rules.
The World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System provides a common foundation for customs tariff codes, which countries extend for their own requirements. A company assigns the relevant tariff code to each product for the markets concerned and, where applicable, an export control classification such as a US Export Control Classification Number (ECCN). Descartes can supply reference content for these classifications, while the company remains responsible for classifying its products.
SAP GTS can use an assigned tariff code, together with applicable tariff data and transaction details, to support duty determination and customs processes. It can use an assigned export control classification alongside other configured rules and transaction information to support license checks.
An incorrect classification can contribute to inaccurate duty calculations, rejected declarations or an export control check that does not identify a required license. Accurate classifications and dependable reference content are both essential to the quality of these decisions.
Meggitt PLC Automates Customs Classification with Descartes CustomsInfo Solution
Sanctioned Party List Screening
Sanctioned party list screening helps your company identify transactions involving parties subject to applicable restrictions. Failing to identify a restricted party can lead to regulatory penalties and other serious consequences.
Sanctioned party screening compares the names and addresses of your customers, vendors, and business partners against the list content loaded into SAP GTS. Depending on your configuration, SAP GTS can rescreen business partner records when nightly delta files from your content provider update the sanctioned party lists, and screen transaction documents as business activity occurs. Potential matches are blocked for compliance review and adjudication, with decisions recorded to support an audit trail.
In SAP GTS, the quality of your list content, business partner data and match thresholds affects which transactions are flagged for review. Retrieving and successfully loading your provider’s update files every day helps ensure screening reflects the latest available list changes. A lower match threshold can generate more alerts for similar names, while a higher threshold may miss relevant name variations.
If you collect business partner names in Mandarin Chinese, retain the original Chinese names and capture available English names and Latin-script transliterations. Request available native language names from your content provider and confirm that your SAP GTS implementation supports their use in screening. Selecting more lists does not automatically improve screening.
Choose lists relevant to your industry, products, markets and applicable regulatory obligations; unrelated lists can increase review work without improving coverage of the risks your business faces.
Up to 60% Fewer False Positives in Denied Party Screening with Descartes AI Assist
How They Work Together
Trade content, classification and sanctioned party screening work together in SAP GTS. Trade content supplies reference data; your product classifications connect products to relevant customs and export control processes; and sanctioned party screening compares relevant transaction parties against the lists loaded into the system. The quality of the overall process depends on more than any one component: content must be accurate and complete, classifications must be appropriate, and SAP GTS must be configured to use that information effectively.
Descartes supplies HS codes for more than 211 countries, relevant ECCN and dual-use reference content, and content for more than 357 rules of origin for free trade agreements. We cover more than 450 denied and restricted party lists. Our content is prepared for use with SAP GTS and maintained as source requirements change. Our focus is on delivering dependable data that customers can use with confidence in their configured trade processes.
Reduce False Positives Without Missing Real Risk
A false positive is an alert for a match that, after review, is determined not to involve the listed party. False positives create review work and may delay legitimate transactions. Reducing them requires attention to both the quality of the underlying content and the way screening is configured. Any change should be tested to ensure that relevant matches are still identified. Here are five things you can do to help reduce false positives:
Here are five things you can do to help reduce false positives:
Well-structured, accurate list content
Consistently structured names, aliases, transliterations and addresses help distinguish listed parties from unrelated people or businesses with similar names. Quality checks should also catch incomplete records, duplicate entries and incorrect associations.
SAP GTS indexing and search tuning
Review how your configuration handles common business terms, abbreviations, special characters and the fields used for matching. Test changes carefully so that reducing unnecessary alerts does not cause relevant matches to be missed.
Configurable match thresholds
Match thresholds affect the balance between identifying possible matches and generating alerts for review. Assess settings against your organization’s risk requirements and screening scenarios. Changes that reduce alerts may also affect which potential matches are identified, so test the results against realistic examples before putting them into use.
Secondary identifiers
Country and address details can help reviewers distinguish genuine matches from coincidences. Other identifiers may also help where they are available in the list content and supported by the customer’s SAP GTS configuration. Keep business partner records as complete and accurate as possible.
Review of previously resolved matches
Where your configuration supports retaining decisions on reviewed matches, establish a process for revisiting them when party data or list records change. This helps ensure that a previous clearance does not obscure a newly relevant match.
How to Choose a Trade Content and Screening Partner for SAP GTS
When evaluating a provider, start with coverage:
• Does it include the sanctions, tariff, export controls and FTA content relevant to your products, transactions and markets? Missing or incomplete coverage can create gaps in your compliance process.
• Then examine how the provider maintains quality. How does it interpret source changes, validate records, resolve inconsistencies and check the content before delivery? How clearly can it explain a change and trace it back to its source? Ask how quickly verified updates become available, particularly for sanctions lists that can change with little notice.
• Confirm that the provider can deliver content in the format and through the secure process required by your SAP GTS implementation. Reliable integration reduces manual handling and the chance of introducing errors while loading data.
• For sanctioned party screening, examine the depth and structure of names, aliases, transliterations, identifiers and addresses. Ask how the provider checks that these details belong to the correct party. High-quality content gives your screening configuration and reviewers a better basis for identifying genuine risk and clearing unrelated matches.
• Also consider traceability. Your provider should be able to explain the source and history of its content, while your screening process should retain appropriate records of alerts, reviews and decisions. Together, these records help your team explain the basis for its actions.
• Finally, look for proven SAP GTS experience and support that can accommodate your content needs and transaction volumes as your business grows. The strongest partner delivers content your team can trust, understands how it is used in SAP GTS, and helps you maintain that quality over time.
Would you like to learn more about Descartes global trade solutions?
Global Trade Resources
