Data management systems are described for managing product data during global trade scenarios. Product objects are used within a system landscape of a business or other organization to refer to products traded by the organization. Each product object is related to, but de-coupled for the purposes of global trading from, one or more trade item objects, where the trade item objects include information related to specific global trade standards, trade scenarios, or trading partners. This model results in a “handshake model” in which in-house processing and operations are implemented using the product object(s), while global trade processing is implemented using the corresponding trade item object(s).