The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has partnered with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to expand the focus of the Global Business Identifier (GBI) Test, which is examining how identifiers—unique numbers that capture information about legal business entities and their functions—can be leveraged to address a range of supply chain traceability needs for government and industry. The GBI Test originally commenced on December 19, 2022, and will now continue through February 23, 2027.
CBP will work jointly with FDA to explore how identifiers could be leveraged to enable coordination and harmonized decision making across the U.S. government. The test is intended to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing GBIs to address data gaps caused by the unreliability of the manufacturer or shipper identification code (MID), in addition to exploring opportunities to enhance supply chain traceability and visibility more broadly—including examining how CBP, partner government agencies, and industry might leverage GBIs to comply with growing supply chain traceability requirements.